Romanian pay tv service joins 16E

[Analoguesat]

ROMANIA’s DIGITAL CABLE SYSTEMS SEALS CONTRACT WITH EUTELSAT
COMMUNICATIONS ON W2 SATELLITE FOR MAX TV DIGITAL PLATFORM

Paris 30 May 2006

Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Digital Cable Systems (DCS) of Romania today announced the signature of a contract for lease of capacity on the W2 satellite for Max TV, a pay-TV platform delivered by DCS to direct-to-home (DTH) antennas and cable systems in Romania. The arrival of Max TV on W2, joining 11 Romanian channels and pay-TV platforms from Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia further consolidates Eutelsat’s W2 video neighbourhood for central Europe.

The five-year lease for one transponder on W2 is being used by DCS from 30 May to deliver a multiplex of 16 channels from its teleport and subscriber management centre in Bucharest to cable and satellite homes Romania. The line-up includes Discovery Travel & Living, Discovery Science, Discovery ivilization, Viasat Explorer, Viasat History, TV 1000, Reality, AXN Sci-Fi, AXN Crime and TV Sports. The full commercial service is scheduled to be launched on 29 June.

In addition to commercialising Max TV to DTH homes, the objective of DCS is to target the one million homes in Romania connected to small and medium-sized analogue cable networks. Using a trans-modulator located at cable headends to convert digital signals from the standard for satellite (DVB-S) into the standard for cable (DVB-C), and a set-top box in subscriber homes, DCS will be able to market premium digital channels and packages of digital channels to cable homes. Gheorghe Minea, DCS’s President of the Board, said: “We selected Eutelsat as our partner, the largest satellite operator on the European market, because of their perseverance, opening and flexibility in building a good reputation for quality broadcast services. Today we have good contact with all our customers and we would like to utilise our quality services to expand our market with DTH and digital cable television viewers.”
Giuliano Berretta, Eutelsat CEO said: “This new contract with Max TV, which follows the launch on W2 of television platforms from Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia, underscores the continuing dynamic of digital television in central and eastern Europe where Eutelsat has built a longstanding market presence. In addition to hosting new channels for a growing audience of cable and satellite homes, W2’s proximity from its 16 degrees East position to our HOT BIRD™ satellites at 13 degrees East opens the opportunity to receive more than 400 free-to-air channels broadcasting from our prime video neighbourhood with a
single 90cm dish.”