Discovery responds to RCS&RDS move

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Discovery responds to RCS&RDS move
November 29, 2012 11.22 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

Discovery has issued a response to the criticism levelled against it by RCS&RDS, Romania’s leading cable and DTH operator.

Provided to and published by Mediafax, it says that the asking price made to RCS&RDS for distribution of its channels was competitive and reasonable in relation to the quality of TV programmes broadcast by Discovery.

It also expresses concern at the actions of RCS&RDS, which will deprive its subscribers of six services, including Discovery Channel, the most documentary channel in Romania.

Earlier this week RCS&RDS announced that it had decided to withdraw the channels from its offer. Discovery says it is still open to negotiate with RCS&RDS.

 

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Romanian blow for Discovery
November 30, 2012 00.23 Europe/London By Chris Dziadul

RCS&RDS has taken Discovery channels off its cable networks throughout Romania.

Media Expres reports that the action took place on Thursday, November 29 in the evening and followed the withdrawal of the channels from RCS&RDS’s DTH operation a few days ago.

It adds that in Bucharest the company’s Digi TV cable operation replaced Discovery Channel with History and Animal Planet with a non-localised version of BBC Entertainment. The other Discovery channels (Investigation, World, Science and TLC), which were previously in an extra package, were replaced by blank screens.

Discovery is estimated to have lost around 2.5 million subscribers in Romania as a result of its withdrawal from RCS&RDS, brought about by a dispute over carriage fees between the two companies.

Although its channels are still carried by other leading cable operators including UPC, Romtelecom and AKTA, there are indications some may wish to renegotiate their contracts with Discovery.