Vipnet, second largest domestic mobile operator, took over 100% of the company Digi satelitska televizija d.o.o. (DIGI TV), thereby ensuring availability of its TV services to users across the country. The former owner of DIGI TV was the Romanian RCS & RDS Group with operations in six SEE countries, while the transaction value remains undisclosed due to the sellers request.

DIGI TV is one of the first digital TV operators in the Croatian market, operating since 2006 and offering exclusively SAT TV via Direct to Home (DTH) technology. DIGI TV has 36 employees and revenues amounting to HRK 14.7m in 2012. This move has secured Vipnet additional presence on the domestic TV services market, following the companys acquisition of cable operator Bnet in 2011 in a transaction worth HRK 93m or EV/EBITDA = 11.3x and EV/S = 3.4x. Namely, in 2012 Vipnet has already offered several new products and services in fixed and TV markets and thereby witnessed a strong user base growth. The number of households using Vipnets fixed communication and TV services has gone up to 163k, 13.5% higher over 2011. Cable TV, IPTV and SAT TV services posted a combined growth of 13.1% in 2012.

This type of consolidation surely represents a certain threat for HT as well, the leading Pay TV operator whose TV user base grew 7% to 364k in 2012. If we compare that with HTs revenues from IP services altogether (20.5% of total revenues) which posted 0.9% YoY growth in 2012, making it the only retail segment recording growth in 2012, it becomes clear that this market has a lot of growth potential, albeit with increasing competitive pressures affecting prices, quality and thereby also profitability.