Wind, Nova eye content sharing agreement
A new deal is brewing in the Greek pay-TV sector that could change the landscape in the content market: Already a heavyweight phone and internet services provider, Wind Hellas is examining a possible cooperation with alternative provider Forthnet (which operates leading pay-TV platform Nova) as part of planning for the former’s pay-TV debut. The objective of both parties is for Wind to offer its customers (as well as others) Nova’s TV content.
If they do reach such a deal, it would be unique in that it would be the first time a content supplier sells wholesale (i.e. to another service provider) content that it hitherto supplied exclusively to its own customers.
The move is dictated by the fact that content continues to be expensive despite the shrinking of consumers’ disposable incomes, and one way to bring the cost down is for it to reach more customers via such cooperations. In this case, Nova would secure a much needed new source of revenue and Wind Hellas would obtain access to unique content, such as Greek soccer league games.
Wind intends to follow a different distribution model to Forthnet’s for its content in that it will exclusively use internet protocol TV (IPTV), which means it will only supply TV programs via the World Wide Web.
