Towercom Bulgaria Contracts Thomson in New DTT Deal

Towercom Bulgaria, which has been licensed to roll out a digital terrestrial TV network across the country, has selected Thomson Broadcast as a strategic partner, the two companies announced.

Thomson Broadcast is a brand of the French-headquartered electronics and media conglomerate Technicolor.

Towercom Bulgaria has a 15-year DTT licence and is currently building two SFN networks for national operation.

Thomson Broadcast is supplying Elite GreenPower medium and high power transmitters to allow Towercom Bulgaria to decrease energy consumption significantly while guaranteeing the best signal quality.

In total, Towercom Bulgaria will use 24 transmitters supplied by Thomson Broadcast.

"We selected the Thomson Broadcast transmission solution for our project because it offers a good balance between cost of ownership and outstanding output power efficiency," said Lyudmil Christov, CTO of Towercom Bulgaria.

"The DTTV rollout in Bulgaria marks the first major step in our deployment of the Elite GreenPower series in Eastern European countries," said Nicolas Dallery, president of Thomson Broadcast.

The Bulgarian Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) picked last year Towercom Bulgaria for the construction of two multiplexes, including one of Bulgaria's two national commercial DTT multiplexes.

The Bulgarian subsidiary of Slovakia's Towercom was acquired in May 2010 by NURTS Bulgaria, a joint venture between the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, recently rebranded as Vivacom, and Cyprus-based international financial investor Mancelord Limited, represented in Bulgaria by Bromak Ltd., majority shareholder in Corporate Commercial Bank.

Bromak also holds a stake in the media group of mogul Irena Krasteva, who is believed to be funded by the Corporate Commercial Bank.

The other player on the market is Latvia-based Hannu Pro, which was picked in July this year to operate what will be the country's public service DTT multiplex.

The future operator of the multiplex, which will distribute the digital programs of the national state-owned television BNT and radio BNR, will receive a permit for 15 years and will provide services to 12 cities across the country – Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Vidin, Kardzhali, Pleven, Plovdiv, Russe, Smolyan, Sofia, Starta Zagora, Shumen.

Hannu Pro will operate four out of six multiplexes in Bulgaria.