July 7, during the event, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the operator Datagroup, Aleksandr Danchenko, former CEO and actual Ukrainian MP, and Maxim Smelyanets, CEO, discussed the appearance of Datagroup, its development and its achievements. Even more interesting topic of discussion was the operator’s future perspectives. Among them is a possible participation in launching a new Ukrainian DTH-platform.
Datagroup has been cooperating with the satellite operator Eutelsat for some years in providing satellite communications services and the Internet. In November 2012 the inauguration of a satellite communications network based on Ka-band was announced, which has a high capacity allowing faster Internet for the end user up to 40 Mbit/s in incoming channel and 10 Mbit/s in the outgoing one.
Launching new satellite Eutelsat 9B at the orbital position 9°E will contribute to the further implementation of joint projects. In his interview to Mediasat, Apostolos Triantafyllou, Eutelsat’s representative in Ukraine, said that the operator would use that new satellite not only for satellite communications services and the Internet, but also for providing a capacity for broadcasting Ukrainian channels.
Answering the question of Mediasat’s reporter about perspectives for creating DTH-platform, Aleksandr Danchenko says that as being an MP, he is concerned above all about the information security of the country, and satellite TV is very vulnerable in this regard. In addition, the market of satellite providers is evidently vacant. So, Alexander Ivanovich has been negotiating with a number of satellite operators on designing an appropriate model of national satellite television.
I’m not still ready to disclose all the details of negotiations now, as many things are not agreed. But I think that we are about to announce the results of discussions in September, as Mr. Danchenko points out.
Maxim Smelyanets also did not specify Datagroup’s plans for TV broadcasting: Perhaps we will provide TV services in addition to the Internet package and I would not like to say anything prematurely. We will be able to tell you everything more in detail by autumn.
According to the participants of discussions and talks with other market players we are getting the impression that the creation and launch of a new DTH-platform are in the wind, owned by … still unknown.
We shall recall that the liquidation of DTH-operator Xtra TV this May resulted in just one satellite provider Viasat remaining in the market, as such, the niche for budget operator is still vacant. Believe it or not, Ukraine, for some reason, is always experiencing bad luck with DTH-platforms, especially the budget ones.
In 2010, the operation was suspended by MYtv and Poverkhnost+, in 2014 – by Lybid TV, and in 2015 – by Xtra TV. Hopefully, a new operator, if it really appears on the market, will take into account the experience of predecessors.
