TEO signed an agreement on acquisition of UAB Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija

On 29 October 2007 TEO LT, AB (hereinafter – TEO), an integrated telecommunication, IT and TV services provider, signed an agreement on acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in UAB Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija.

UAB Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija, which was spun off from UAB Mikrovisatos TV during reorganisation, has two licences for re-broadcasting of television channels over digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) networks.

By acquiring Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija, TEO seeks to accelerate the development of digital terrestrial TV in Lithuania – to provide a bigger variety of services and better quality.

“We are ready to allocate significant investments and organizational capacities for the development of digital television. This is long-term and strategically important project, therefore we are glad to have reached an agreement with the shareholders of Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija”, – ArÅ«nas Å ikšta, General Manager of TEO, said.

According to him, having the permission from the Communications Regulatory Authority to operate the signal transmission network in Lithuania, TEO will be able to more flexibly offer the paid multi-channel TV service to digital TV customers.

According to Sigitas Kavaliauskas, who is the main shareholder of Mikrovisatos TV, the company has decided to pay more attention to the core areas of its business – the development of the optical network in the city of Kaunas, cable TV and broadband Internet services.

“We are currently implementing several large investment project in multi-channel and cable TV as well as broadband internet services area that we will announce shortly to our clients in Kaunas and Kaunas region”, – S. Kavaliauskas said.

Subject to approvals from respective State institutions, it is planned to complete the transaction for the acquisition of the shares of Nacionalinė Skaitmeninė Televizija by the end of this year.

At present, cable TV services in Lithuania are provided by more than 50 companies. In terms of revenue, UAB Mikrovisatos TV holds 9.2 per cent of the multi-channel subscription TV and cable TV market in Lithuania.

In October 2006, TEO started providing Internet technologies-based (IPTV) digital television GALA services to residential customers.