The media and telecommunications market in Poland is adjusting to the changing preferences of customers, who are increasingly looking to receive all media and communications services from a single provider. In response, providers are integrating their pay TV, broadband Internet, and telephony services into packages, thus enabling their subscribers to purchase all of these services under a single agreement, subscription fee and invoice.
The multi-play services market in Poland is underdeveloped in lesser populated areas, and therefore has significant growth potential in suburban areas, in small towns and in villages, where such services are now virtually unavailable. Apart from the low penetration rate of multi-play services in less densely populated areas, the quality of Internet services provided by cable operators is usually poor. It is therefore a chance for DTH operators (including Cyfrowy Polsat), who are not as limited by the geographical reach and lack of fixed-line infrastructure as cable TV operators and telecommunications services providers. They can thus become the leading providers of high quality multi-play services to customers in suburbs, in small towns, and in rural areas of Poland.
According to the European Commission’s E-Communications Household Survey of June 2012, the saturation level of the multi-play services market (defined as more than one service being delivered by a single provider) in Poland amounted to 28%, versus 43% in the European Union, and over 60% in the Netherlands and in Belgium (64% and 61%, respectively).
At present, triple-play services, comprising TV, Internet and telephony services are offered by cable TV operators, such as UPC, Multimedia Polska S.A. and Vectra S.A., by telecommunications operators, such as the Orange Group (Telekomunikacja Polska S.A.), Netia S.A. and Telefonia Dialog S.A. (acquired by Netia in 2011), and by DTH operators, for instance Cyfrowy Polsat.
The consolidation trends manifest on the media and telecommunications market spell the emergence of powerful provider groups, offering bundled services and contributing to the multi-play market’s development.
Since 2011, TVN S.A. and Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TP) have partnered to offer joint services – Internet (TP) and TV packages (the ’n’ platform).
In the middle of 2012, Cyfra+ started selling Play’s Internet access services in cooperation with the Play network operator.
At the end of 2012, the TVN Group and Canal+ Cyfrowy Sp. z o.o. finalised an agreement providing for the merger of their DTH platforms. The cooperation with TP will be maintained and transferred to the joint nc+platform.
The multi-play services market is also propelled by the inceasingly stronger group of companies controlled by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak, who, besides having control over the Cyfrowy Polsat Group, has been controlling Polkomtel Sp. z o.o. since 2011. In 2012, both companies announced a partnership and started cross-selling their services.
