Pay TV channels invade Finland; free digital adapters with new subscriptions

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The slow demand for digital adapters necessary for viewing digital TV channels has created a new marketing niche. Because all homes in Finland will have to have either a digital decoder or a digital TV receiver by August 2007, pay-TV companies have decided to deliver the required digital set-top boxes free of charge.
     
However, a free digital set-top box is subject to a 12-month subscription package, which will cost close to EUR 400 a year.
      The CEO of Canal Digital in Finland Jyri Timonen says that there is not much competition in Finland, and households who view pay-TV channels are few. "Therefore it is possible to get tens of thousands of new customers within the next 12 months", he believes.
     
Canal Digital is the distributor of the TV-channels of Canal+, which recently bought the broadcasting rights for the Finnish ice hockey league's national play-offs as well as the Finnish football team's international matches.
      "The aim is to educate people so that they get used to the pay-TV culture, and hopefully they will buy a satellite antenna and more pay-TV services in the future", Timonen suggests.
     
Apart from the free set-top boxes to customers, a considerable commission to the dealers will be paid in the same way as in the mobile phone business.
      From this coming autumn onwards, it will be possible to view even the digital channels of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) via a satellite antenna all over Finland. Canal Digital's distribution will cover also those areas of Finland where a terrestrial antenna network does not transmit a signal.


Links:
  Canal+

Helsingin Sanomat