The company last month registered radio and TV broadcasting as a secondary business with the Trade Registry, after having analyzed the move for years.
The decision made during an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on April 11 and published in the Official Gazette on Monday shows the company added “motion picture, video and television program production activities, motion picture, video and television program distribution activities, sound recording, music publishing activities, television programming and broadcasting activities, advertising agencies” to its secondary business.
Vodafone did not provide any comment on the decision by press time.
All the major actors of the local communications market – Orange, Telekom, RCS&RDS, UPC and AKTA are offering TV services to their customers, and Orange is even preparing for a stronger presence on this market segment through its partnership with Telekom. RCS&RDS, Telekom and UPC account for most of the almost 7 million TV subscription market, which stood at EUR380 million in 2014.
Vodafone’s step does not mean the company will soon enter this market. “A major launch won’t come right away, things will move towards it in a specific time frame,” a market source said.
“It may be that this action is the result of a ‘directive’ to have the local subsidiary ready to enter the fixed service market as soon as an agreement or any other type of cooperation between Vodafone and the local subsidiary of cable TV company UPC is reached,” another industry source said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)