Montenegro adds 15,000 pay TV subscribers in 2013

PODGORICA — The Agency for Electronic Media (Agencije za elektronske medije) in Montenegro has released subscriber figures for the seven operators (four cable and one each of MMDS, IPTV and DTH) authorised to distribute radio and TV programmes to end users in the country.

In addition, in the last quarter of 2013, the Agency awarded a licence for distribution of radio and television programmes to a mobile operator, which has resulted in a number of new connections through this platform.

As at December 31, 2013, the number of connections for the distribution of radio and TV programmes over the different Cable/MMDS/DTH/IPTV/mobile platforms was 148,701, up 2,268 or 1.55% since September 2013, and up 14,870 year-on-year (11.11%). The total represents 76.34% of households, the remainder being covered by terrestrial TV.

Over the year, most of the platforms saw an increase in the number of users. The DTH operator saw the highest growth (21.67%) followed by the IPTV operator (12.06%). The cable operators grew 7.01%.

IPTV retained the leading position with 41.53% of the market (down from 42.04% at the end of 2012). It was followed by DTH distribution at 31.48% percent (28.75% at end-2012) and MMDS and Cable with 14.73% (16.71%) and 12.04% (12.51%) respectively. The market share of the mobile operator was 0.21%.

                                                     2012
               ------------------------------------------
                   March       June  September   December
               ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Connections      123,279    126,093    129,026    133,831

                                                     2013
               ------------------------------------------
                   March       June  September   December
               ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Connections      138,420    144,950    146,433    148,701

The authorised operators in Montenegro are:

“Broadband Montenegro” d.o.o. (MMDS)
“Eltamont” d.o.o. (Cable)
“M-kabl” d.o.o. (Cable)
“Cabling” d.o.o. (Cable)
“Crnogorski Telekom” a.d. (IPTV)
“Total TV Montenegro” d.o.o. (DTH)
“Media Net” d.o.o. (Cable)
“MTel” d.o.o. (mobile)