RCS&RDS joins list of Romtelecom suitors


Central and eastern European pay TV operator RCS&RDS has lodged a bid for the 45.9% chunk of Romtelcom owned by Romanian authorities.

The size of the bid from the Romania-based pay TV operator was not disclosed, but Romanian communications minister Valerian Vreme confirmed it had made a move for the stake in Romtelecom, which operates the Dolce TV pay TV service.


OTE, meanwhile, is understood to also want full control of Romtelecom and has scheduled talks with Romanian authorities. The Deutsche Telekom-backed Greek telco already owns 54% of the Romanian company.

The Romanian telco had just over one million DTH, IPTV and cable TV customers at the end of March, up 15% year-on-year. Romtelecom recently signed a deal to acquire insolvent DTH pay TV operator Boom, with about 95,000 subscribers.