According to the preliminary data gathered by ANCOM from the providers of audio-visual programme retransmission services, the total number of subscribers to these services decreased in the first half of 2010 by almost 100,000 (to 5.73 million), with a 78.3% penetration rate per households as of 30 June 2010. Besides, for the first time, the penetration rates of the retransmission services provided over DTH and over cable networks are decreasing.
“The total number of Romanian subscribers to the services of audio-visual programme retransmission over the DTH platforms fell in the first half of 2010 down to 2.26 million subscribers, from 2.33 million registered at end-2009. This is the first time when we witness such a decrease since the introduction of this technology in Romania”, Catalin Marinescu, the President of ANCOM, has declared today at the 15th edition of the Cable Communications Convention.
At mid-2010, more than 2.6 million subscribers received audio-visual programmes in digital format, 0.35 million of which were subscribers of the cable digital networks (increasing by more than 10% as compared to end-2009).
A significant growth, by approx. 17 times, was registered in the number of IPTV subscribers, their share within the total number of subscribers remaining however low, i.e. only 0.2%.
On this occasion, the president of ANCOM announced that, in 2011, the Authority will define a series of quality parameters to be included in the contracts concluded with the end-users and in the general requirements for the provision of audio-visual media programme services, as the case may be, in view of protecting the users’ interests in their relation with the providers of publicly available electronic communications services.