United Group and Eutelsat develop next gen DTH platform

* Eutelsat becomes United Group’s single satellite operator, supporting its consolidation strategy.
* This move extends the Group’s next-generation DTH services to an audience of 40 million in eight markets.
* The new platform leverages new transmission standards and compression technologies, expands transmission capacities, supports more channels, increases quality, and enables innovative services for TV subscribers.

United Group, the leading telecommunications and entertainment provider in Southeastern Europe, is pleased to announce that it has achieved the next step in consolidating all Direct To Home (DTH) services across the region. Eutelsat Group has been selected as the single future satellite operator for satellite capacity in this consolidation effort.

This transition to the next-generation DTH platform, a single operator and its two satellites at two orbital positions is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. The consolidation will also include a unified STB and CAS, a one-size TVRO, and a Teleport to uplink the content.

This move will extend the next-generation United Group’s DTH services to an audience of 40 million people through Total TV, NOVA, Bulsatcom, and VIVACOM brand names in 8 countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia).

The consolidation and reorganization of the Group’s DTH services will empower the Group to leverage new transmission standards and compression technologies, expand transmission capacities, support more channels, increase quality, and enable innovative services for TV subscribers such as channel aggregation.

Zeljko Batistić, VP Technology of United Group, stated: “We are proud to be taking the high quality of our TV offering to a new level. This transition is crucial to maximise our audience reach across our market footprint, deliver an unrivalled content line-up and continue to develop our next generation services. We are delighted to partner with Eutelsat, who offers us the best and most compliant technical solution to meet our needs.”

Laurence Delpy, President of the Video Business Unit of Eutelsat Group added: “We are honoured that United Group, has placed its confidence in Eutelsat for this important strategic initiative, leveraging two of our leading video neighbourhoods, 16° East and HOTBIRD. As well as reinforcing our long-standing collaboration with one of our key customers in the region, this agreement showcases the ongoing relevance of satellite in addressing the evolving needs of our broadcast clients and confirms Eutelsat as the premier operator covering the region, reaching 7 out of 10 satellite homes.”

The HOTBIRD satellites are currently reaching 130 million homes across Europe, including almost all cable networks in the region. Additionally, the Eutelsat 16A satellite provides over 600 TV channels in a variety of languages to over 12 million homes in Central and Eastern Europe.

With this DTH consolidation, United Group is reaffirming its commitment to streamlined operations efficiency and evolving next-generation services through future-proof satellite possibilities.

 About United Group

United Group is the leading telecommunications and media group in Southeast Europe. Operating across eight countries with nearly 15,000 employees, the Group achieves an annual revenue of over c. €3 billion. In the telecommunications sector, more than 5.30 million households and more than 7.30 million mobile subscribers benefit from the largest FTTH (Fiber to the Home) network in Southeast Europe, intensive investments in United Group's 5G network, and state-of-the-art fixed and mobile connectivity. Under the United Fiber brand, the Group consolidates its fixed infrastructure asset portfolio to further accelerate and strengthen its investments in EU based countries by creating strong synergies and bringing its investment capabilities to the next level. United Group’s entire infrastructure wholesale activities including voice, data, mobile and roaming are managed by UGI Wholesale. The Group’s in-house tech stack company and innovation center United Cloud is driving the regional transformative shift in entertainment and telecommunications with products such as its next generation video platform EON.

Its media arm, United Media, produces and distributes compelling TV content, with major sports, news and entertainment formats, reaching a vast audience of 40 million people through its market-leading free-to-air channels complemented by a compelling portfolio of Pay-TV channels. With a current capacity of producing over 40,000 hours of original local content annually, United Media manages 60 TV channels, 40 web and trusted news portals, 10 print editions and radio stations.

 About Eutelsat Group

Eutelsat Group is a global leader in satellite communications, delivering connectivity and broadcast services worldwide. The Group was formed through the combination of the Company and OneWeb in 2023, becoming the first fully integrated GEO-LEO satellite operator with a fleet of 36 Geostationary satellites and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation of more than 600 satellites.