Broadcasting sales down 4.2% in 2009

Sales on the broadcasting market in 2009 constituted 225.85 million lei, down by 4.2 per cent, or 10 million lei on the previous year, the National Agency for Electronic Communication and Information Technology (ANRCETI) said in a report, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. On the conventional television market sales reduced by 3.6 per cent to 103.99 million lei, and on the conventional radio market sales dropped by 21.2 per cent to 29.28 million lei. At the same time, sales on the cable TV market rose by 1.9 per cent to 92.45 million lei. Average monthly revenue per user (ARPU) of cable TV services was 34.88 lei. The largest provider of such services, Sun Communications, reported an ARPU of 42.16 lei. In 2009 investment in the broadcasting market constituted 28.45 million lei, down by 51 per cent on the previous year. The largest investments were made in cable TV – 14.7 million lei, followed by investments in conventional TV – 7.57 million lei, and investments in radiobroadcasting – 6.17 million lei. The number of users of cable and codified TV reduced by 7.7 per cent to 218,400. The number of users of satellite digital TV rose to 2,500. 62.8 per cent of users of cable TV are in Chisinau, and 10.9 per cent in Balti. More than 55 per cent have packages with 50 channels or more. The largest share of the cable TV market belongs to Sun Communications. Two other companies – CTC Alfa and AMT – have shares of 8.03 per cent and 2.79 per cent, respectively, while the remaining operators have shares under 1 per cent.