Telecom operator Romtelecom, which runs the Dolce satellite TV service, announced it would no longer broadcast the Pro TV channels starting with January 3, due to “the threefold growth of the costs for broadcasting these programs, according to the operator.
“Due to unreasonable financial demands expressed by ProTV S.A. towards Romtelecom, that of increasing three-fold the costs for broadcasting the 11 channels of the group (ProTV, ProTV International, ProTV HD, Acasa TV, Acasa Gold, Acasa HD, ProCinema, Sport.ro, Sport.ro HD, MTV Romania, VH1) on Romtelecom’s TV platforms, negotiations between the two parties have failed.
Romtelecom is compelled to pull the 11 channels from the list of channels available for its subscribers, starting January 3. The ProTV channel will continue to be broadcast on the IPTV and cable TV, according to the must-carry principle. All the channels of the Pro TV group continue to be available at this date on the NextGen platform owned by Romtelecom,” Romtelecom further said.
The channels which were taken out will be replaced with HBO, HBO Comedy, BBC Knowledge, Comedy Central, Shorts, BBC World News, France 24, MTV Hits, Mooz Hits- and in the case of subscribers with HD receivers, also Eurosport 1 HD and Shorts HD.
On Romtelecom’s IPTV platform, channels such as Mooz Dance and Mooz Dance HD will be added.
Romtelecom had on September 30, 2012, approximately 1.2 million TV subscribers via cable TV, DTH and IPTV platforms.
Otilia Haraga