Aster ponders niche services in developing market
The company, which in 2003 doubled its year-on-year profit, recently added Multiplex to its existing cable offering pay-TV- digital channel, Canal+, a move which will augment the product built around HBO.
Aster's executives realize that customers are going to be increasingly demanding a larger bundle of services from their chosen cable operators. And that's where a modern digital network more closely linked with state-of-the-art telephony services comes in, says Janusz Arciszewski, president of Aster City.
He explains that two things are on the minds of European cable executives: "One is digital and one is telephony."
Besides aggressively increasing its roughly 7,000 digital cable subscribers to 40,000 by yearend with more channels and digital-only services, it is considering - though not yet acting on - investing in more telephony services.
"Going into telephony is not just a small decision," Arciszewski says, adding that it could cost several million dollars.
But he says that after investing in digital technology it would be tough to justify something like this to shareholders just yet.
Besides traditional telephony and cable services, he says that cable companies provide what are now upper-tier services, such as video monitoring, which, though not in demand on the wider market, could become commodities much in the way that the Internet has developed in the USA, where it is beginning to outpace TV as the leisure activity of choice.
But he expects Poles to warm to them - hence the aggressive digital strategy, something it thus far deems to be a success.
"We launched the services to about 7,000 digital subscribers in Warsaw - and most are new customers," he boasts, noting that consumers without cable subscriptions were diving into the digital services apace.
That might be surprising given that digital subscriptions are more expensive than their analog counterparts,
He explains the draw: "As far as the quality [is concerned] there is an incredible difference.... And like anything else, the price will come down."
Aster's executives realize that customers are going to be increasingly demanding a larger bundle of services from their chosen cable operators. And that's where a modern digital network more closely linked with state-of-the-art telephony services comes in, says Janusz Arciszewski, president of Aster City.
He explains that two things are on the minds of European cable executives: "One is digital and one is telephony."
Besides aggressively increasing its roughly 7,000 digital cable subscribers to 40,000 by yearend with more channels and digital-only services, it is considering - though not yet acting on - investing in more telephony services.
"Going into telephony is not just a small decision," Arciszewski says, adding that it could cost several million dollars.
But he says that after investing in digital technology it would be tough to justify something like this to shareholders just yet.
Besides traditional telephony and cable services, he says that cable companies provide what are now upper-tier services, such as video monitoring, which, though not in demand on the wider market, could become commodities much in the way that the Internet has developed in the USA, where it is beginning to outpace TV as the leisure activity of choice.
But he expects Poles to warm to them - hence the aggressive digital strategy, something it thus far deems to be a success.
"We launched the services to about 7,000 digital subscribers in Warsaw - and most are new customers," he boasts, noting that consumers without cable subscriptions were diving into the digital services apace.
That might be surprising given that digital subscriptions are more expensive than their analog counterparts,
He explains the draw: "As far as the quality [is concerned] there is an incredible difference.... And like anything else, the price will come down."
