Sistema Mass-Media (SMM), part of financial corporation Sistema, announced it would resume the project of creating a mobile digital television system in DVB-H standard in Moscow, reported Vedomosti, a Russian business daily.
Digital Television and Radio Broadcasting (DTB), a wholly owned subsidiary of SMM specializing in automobile digital TV, will take up the project in 2011.
The TV system will broadcast six channels and has a potential audience of 300,000 Moscow drivers, according to SMM research. The monthly service fee will likely cost about 1,000 rubles ($36), and the necessary receiving equipment will cost from 25,000 to 30,000 rubles (approximately $900 to $1,000).
This project may appear to be a bold move considering the 2003 failure, when DTB was able to attract only 130 subscribers. DTB, however, expects that the renovated design will attract no fewer than 100,000 subscribers, an unnamed source close to the company told Vedomosti. The project will be supported by advertising campaigns, and subscribers will be able to access premium content, explained the source.
SMM has not disclosed the amount it will invest in the project, but according to the Vedomosti source, it will be less than the amount that VimpelCom and Scartel invested in the DVB-H services they created at the end of 2009. VimpelCom, leading mobile operator, spent about $15 million on that project (via its subsidiary Dominanta), while Scartel, the operator of the first Russian mobile WiMAX network, spent about $20 million (via its subsidiary Kentavr).
DTB’s project to reanimate DVB-H is quite possibly connected with Sistema’s recent decision to reconfigure its telecommunications and media assets. To that end, Sistema transferred the management of Kosmos TV to DTB, thereby 130 customers of the first company joined 35,000 clients of the second company—still a small figure for the Moscow market. Perhaps further multi-million dollar investments will help the mobile television industry take off in Russia.
