Pay TV penetration is, however, lower than 45 per cent of total households and there is still room for pay TV players, especially with only five national channels on digital terrestrial (DTT). MaxTV Sat is targeting higher-earning homes than DTT and Digi TV, as well as offering triple play.

Competition is likely to become tougher with more free and pay channels launching on DTT, and with TotalTV's co-operation with B.Net. A high number of satellite operators is a common phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe, with some countries already hosting five (Poland, Slovakia) or even six (Russia). Deutsche Telekom subsidiaries have also launched satellite platforms in Hungary (T-Home) and Slovakia (Magio Sat).

The first IPTV player in the region to move onto satellite was Poland's TP SA, which launched at the end of 2008 to make up for a slow growth of its IPTV service. Romanian Romtelecom is one more operator with both IPTV and satellite TV services (though it launched satellite before IPTV).