Intelsat looks to Ukraine and Russia for DTH growth

Ukraine and Russia offer the best prospects for growth in DTH in the central and eastern Europe region, according to Jean-Philippe Gillet, regional vice-president, Europe and the Middle East at satellite operator Intelsat.

Speaking at the Digital TV Central and Eastern Europe conference in Budapest yesterday, Gillet said he believed there were still good prospects for new platform launches in the region, and identified Ukraine as a market that was currently underserved. “I think it’s a challenging market but it’s a market with a large populaon and low penetration of DTH,” said Gillet. He said Intelsat also saw significant opportunities in Russia, where it provides capacity to the second largest DTH player, Orion Express. “I see lots of opportunities in Russia,” said Gillet.

Gillet said that the development of HD in the region had been hit to some extent by the economic crisis of the last couple of years. However, he said he believed this was changing as economic conditions were beginning to improve again, allowing operators to increase ARPU.