Inside CEE Television

Chris Dziadul, March 12 2026

 

Russian TV satellite fails

The Russian telecommunications satellite Express-AT1 has suffered a complete failure, leaving up to 5 million people in the country without a TV signal. According to local reports, its service life was until 2030 and no new satellite was planned to replace it before then. Tricolor, Russia’s leading pay-TV operator and one of Express-AT1’s clients, has already begun to transfer some of its broadcasts to other orbital positions.  Express-AT1 was launched in 2014 and is located at 56 degrees East. It is operated by the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC), and its other users include NTV Plus and Russkiy Mir. Inside CEE Television notes that the reasons for Express-AT1’s failure are still unknown. In a separate but related development, Orion Group has announced that due to the need to change the orbital position of the Express-AT2 satellite due to the emergency, several satellite operators have suspended TV broadcasts in the Far East of Russia. It adds that “the AT-2 satellite's coverage area is fully covered by the Express-AM5 satellite, which is located in the same orbital position at 140 degrees East and is used by (Orion’s) Telekarta satellite television. To provide TV coverage to all subscribers in the Far East, Orion Group has developed and launched a program to quickly transfer satellite TV users affected by the emergency to the Express-AM5 satellite.”

 

RTL+ growth continues in Hungary

RTL Hungary’s streaming service RTL+ nearly doubled its paying subscribers in 2025. At the same time, it recorded 37.9 million viewing hours, with overall consumption up 50% from the 25.1 million total reported in 2024. RTL notes that its Hungarian subsidiary outperformed the TV advertising market in 2025, which grew by around 2%. RTL Hungary’s total revenue was up by 7.2% to €148 million, while Adjusted EBITDA improved to €-3 million, thanks largely to lower streaming start-up costs. Meanwhile, its Hungarian flagship channel RTL reached a primetime audience share of 15.3% among viewers aged 18-59, or 1 percentage point behind its main commercial competitor TV2. RTL Hungary’s combined primetime audience share among viewers aged 18-59 was 31.2%, or 1.6 percentage points behind TV2.

 

Zoom TV licence revoked

Poland’s National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) has revoked the satellite licence of Zoom TV, a channel operated by Kino Polska TV. The move has come at the latter’s request and related to the channel’s new development strategy. Zoom TV will continue to operate under a Spanish licence. KRRiT has also renewed the licences of Canal+ Polska and Canal+ Kuchnia for 10 years and approved a name change for Red Carpet Media Group’s ViDocTV1 to Short TV. Separately, the regulator has confirmed it suspended the competition for a slot on the MUX-8 multiplex at the request of Republika S.A, which was the only applicant. It added that the suspension “allows the application to remain legally valid and be revisited in the future. The applicant may request the procedure to be resumed at any time.”

 

STB the key for One Hungary

4iG Group’s One Hungary sees the set-top box (STB) as very much part of its strategy. Speaking at the Connected TV World Summit in London, Renáta Fülöp-Árvai, head of TV and content services at the company, added that no one has yet launched a smart TV app in the country. However, this is something One Hungary is thinking of doing. In her view, the STB allows One Hungary to own its customers and aggregate content. One Hungary’s main goal is to put content into a recommendation engine and reduce the time viewers spend in choosing what to watch. Fülöp-Árvai denied One Hungary is in competition with YouTube and said that they key to its success is the local content if offers.

 

LSM outlines digital strategy

The Latvian public broadcaster LSM is currently focusing on combining its seven fragmented digital offers including SVOD under one roof, according to Inga Alika, head of digital strategy and development. Speaking at the Connected TV World Summit in London, she added that LSM came into existence at the beginning of last year when Latvia’s public TV and radio services merged into a single entity. Alika also said that Latvia is an advanced market, having introduced 1Gbps broadband as far back as 2012. Furthermore, it is one in which 50% of streaming subscribers opt for local services. Looking to the future, Alika said that working with local players is more appealing to LSM than with global ones.

 

New film channel from Vodafone

Vodafone TV has launched a proprietary film channel in the Czech Republic. Known as Vodafone Extra, it only carries commercials before the start of movies. Separately, Vodafone TV has made AXN, which is normally available in its Family package, also available in its basic offer for six months. 

 

Polsat adds WBD and TVP channels

Poland’s Polsat Box Go, a service that combines streaming and TV, has expanded its offer with the addition of 23 channels from Warner Bros. Discovery and the public broadcaster TVP. The new additions include TVN24, TVN24 BiS, TVN7, TVN Style, TVN Turbo, TVN Fabuła, TVP Info, TVP Sport and TVP Seriale. Now, with Polsat Box Go, viewers can watch nearly 200 TV channels and thousands of hours of films, series, and programmes from the VOD library. All they need is internet access, without a set-top box or long commitments.

 

Czech Prima hires Jan Wykrytowicz

Jan Wykrytowicz has been appointed the director of VOD and non-advertising revenues at the Czech Republic’s Prima Group, effective April 1. In his new role, will be responsible for developing business models and monetising digital content. He will focus primarily on subscription services, digital products and strategic partnerships. He will also be responsible for new distribution opportunities for digital content. Wykrytowicz is a media manager with over 15 years of experience. He specialises in building and developing streaming and OTT platforms and also has extensive experience in the pay-TV sector. He held senior positions at Canal+ and TVN in Poland and at TV3 Group in the Baltics. As CEO of Go3, he led the pan-Baltic OTT service and developed it into the leading subscription streaming platform in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

 

 

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© Chris Dziadul, 2026