(1 July 2009 7:50 pm)

MUMBAI: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Digital Cable in Central and East Europe" report to their offering.

This report, which is part of the Broadband TV News Briefing Series, looks at the cable industries of the 14 largest markets in Central and East Europe (CEE).

The cable industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is well established, providing services to between 30-35 million homes across the region. However, it is also an industry under intense pressure from competing platforms.

Cable's response to the growing competition from DTH and IPTV has been to consolidate and invest heavily in upgrading its infrastructure. This is finally starting to bear fruit as more and more operators roll out such additional services as digital TV, VoD and HD channels.

Although this appears very much like a game of 'catch-up' in some markets, with such services having been first introduced by DTH platforms (HD in the case of Poland's n and Russia's NTV-Plus), leading players such as Liberty Global's UPC are in the front line of new service offerings.