(13 October 2009 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Modern Times Group (MTG) 's Viasat Broadcasting will soon begin marketing and selling its pay-TV channel packages to subscribers of the Estonian broadband and IPTV services provider Elion. Of Elion's 175,000 broadband customers, 88,000 subscribe to its IPTV offering.

Viasat's Estonian free-TV channels (TV3, TV6 and 3+) will be immediately available to Elion subscribers through the platform's existing IPTV packages and the company will offer its pay-TV packages to the customer base, priced at between EEK 99 to EEK 305 per month.

Viasat's premium offering on Elion's IPTV network will comprise the Viasat Gold package of 12 Viasat channels and 25 third party channels. This follows a similar tie-up with Telia in Sweden in May 2008 and builds on previous IPTV agreements with ten broadband network operators in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Owned by AS Estii Telekom, the largest telecommunications provider in Estonia, Elion, the only IPTV service in Estonia, has a 54-per cent share of the broadband market.

Said MTG CEO and president Hans-Holger Albrecht, "This agreement with Elion is the latest step in the rollout of our 'anytime, anywhere' strategy, whereby we seek to make our free-TV channels as broadly available as possible, and to attract subscribers to our pay-TV content on multiple distribution platforms,".

"Elion is the number one Estonian broadband and IPTV operator and this deal highlights the demand for our portfolio of high-rating free-TV channels and popular premium pay-TV content. IPTV distribution is complementary to our own DTH satellite platform because it targets new homes that we have not been able to reach before. We are therefore addressing new homes and will benefit from higher penetration levels moving forward."