Swedish AirplusTV closes Digital Terrestrial pay-TV deal with Telecom Italia
Yesterday, Swedish AirplusTV Group and Telecom Italia Media finalized the agreement for the transfer of all activities concerning the Digital Terrestrial pay-TV platform La7 Cartapi’u to the Italian division of AirplusTV.
Håkan Ramsin, CEO of AirplusTV, states, “We are excited about completing the deal with Telecom Italia Media. The Italian market is one of Europe’s key TV markets and the Italian operations will be one of our corner stones in our European expansion of Digital Terrestrial pay-TV”.
Terrestrial TV is the dominant TV-platform in Italy and by increasing the existing consumer offer of Serie A and B football matches, with a wider bouquet of TV content, the objective is set to reach a strong position in the new digital TV market.
As EU directive calls for analogue switch-off before 2012, new possibilities will emerge for pay TV in several countries in Europe in a short period of time. AirplusTV has already established Dahlia Television SA in Spain, ready to launch during 2009, and coming launches in other European countries are under consideration.
”Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) will take the lead as platform for pay-TV services during the coming years, and our business concept is built on our successful Nordic experiences. More than 100 million European households will be receiving digital terrestrial TV within a 4-year period and our objective is to be one of the leading players on this market,” says Håkan Ramsin.
AirplusTV founders have long experience in the digitalization of terrestrial TV. The company’s management and investors include the co-founders and first private investors in Swedish pay-TV success Boxer as well as Finland’s fast growing pay-TV operator PlusTV. AirplusTV will use this experience in DTT pay-TV when entering new markets, as Europe will migrate from analogue to digital TV during coming years.
AirplusTV investors include Investor Growth Capital, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Investor AB (the largest publicly listed industrial holding company in Northern Europe), together with the founding investors Provider Venture Partners, 2TD Holding (Sweden) and Constellation Ventures (USA).