Telecom company RCS &RDS will put EUR 10 million in Zece TV, a generalist TV station which will be launched on December 10 and will be broadcasted to all of the company's cable and satellite TV customers.  The telecom company hopes it will attract more subscribers to its services, in a battle with competitors Romtelecom and UPC Romania.

The Zece TV project manager is Radu Moraru (in picture), who used to own a share package in B1TV and who used to produce the Nasul (Godfather) show on B1 TV. The show will switch to the new TV station and will be broadcasted until February next year, when the schedule will be finalized. Radu Moraru used to hold up to 30 percent of the B1TV shares, but gave them to majority shareholder Bobby Paunescu, in exchange for the brand, logo and team of the Nasul show, which Moraru anchored for ten years.

The aim is to see the TV station emerging among the first three-four generalist TV stations in Romania, said Moraru.  According to data from the market regulator the National Audiovisual Council, the initial investment in the TV station is of EUR 1.8 million, while the telecom operator has pledged to invest EUR 3.5 million a year until 2013.

RCS & RDS has already started to launch TV stations. Last year, it launched Digi Sport and Digi Sport Plus, and owns Digi Film 1 and Digi Film 2. Competitor Romtelecom launched Dolce Sport and plans other music, films and sport TV stations.

RCS & RDS, with EUR 391 million in revenues last year and a EUR 50 million profit, is owned by investor Zoltan Tzesari. The company has 1.6 million subscribers for analogical and digital cable services and 1.1 million users for the satellite TV services.

editor@romania-insider.com