19-02-2008

Six new EU member countries have VoD

By FNE Staff

    A new survey of video-on-demand services in Europe shows that VoD service is now available in six of the 12 new European Union member countries, but the region lags far behind Western Europe. The survey by the European Audiovisual Observatory found a total of 31 VoD services were offered at the end of 2007 in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus.

    Overall, the survey released Feb. 19 found in 2007 there were 258 VoD services in operation in 24 EU countries, nearly twice the 142 services offered in December 2006.

    About 74% of the services surveyed are delivered via Internet, 26% are available as part of IPTV packages and 10% come with cable packages. Only a minority of VoD services are delivered via satellite or on digital terrestrial television.