Published:
09-Nov-07
TDF is to acquire broadcast mobile TV technology enabler and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Sytems Media & Broadcast. Through this acquisition, TDF will inherit control over the German mobile TV market with a newly deployed T-DMB network and a nationwide DVB-H mobile TV licence which has just been awarded to TSMB last October. The transaction is to be completed in the first quarter of 2008 and its corresponding enterprise value is €0.85bn.
Our take...
Finnish television service distributor Digita operates a DVB-H mobile TV network in Finland and is also owned by the TDF group. The TDF group is therefore about to control two out of the four broadcast mobile TV networks operating in Europe. The two remaining networks are both Italian and are owned by Mediaset and 3 Italia. Apart from the recently obtained German nationwide DVB-H licence, TSMB is also involved in the Dutch mobile TV market where it plans to deploy a T-DMB network in partnership with German mobile TV wholesaler MFD. Additionally, TDF is extremely likely to be selected by French mobile TV service providers to operate the national DVB-H network expected to launch in the second semester of 2008. Therefore, the TDF group is likely to build and operate three more mobile TV networks by the end of next year, making it the first pan-European mobile TV group.
Finland,
France,
Germany,
Netherlands,
