Have you already seen “Worlds Apart”? Co-starring J.K. Simmons? It is a COSMOTE TV co-production. With more than 600.000 tickets sold it is the most successful movie in the Greek box-office in recent years.
If you are living in Germany quite likely you know Entertain, Deutsche Telekom’s TV service, a frontrunner in the German IPTV market. In markets across our European footprint pay TV offerings go under different names and technology-mix but share a common underlining principle: offer the best viewing experience. In Greece for example the equivalent is COSMOTE TV.
More than 500.000! That’s how many Greek subscribers enjoy COSMOTE TV services. This is big! Especially considering that Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary OTE, the largest telecommunications provider in Greece, clearly beat local competition last year, becoming the No1 Pay TV service in just five years of operation. COSMOTE TV was re-launched in late 2011. Back then pay TV market penetration locally stood at 11%. Now it has reached 25%.
What is its success all about? Well, it is based on a mix of exclusive, high-quality content and cutting-edge technology. Own productions are a clear differentiator on the market and have a big part in the success too. At least this is what the viewers say themselves.
Stella commutes more than half an hour to work every day. She uses this time to watch the latest episode of “Taken”, “Billions” or “Taboo”: “For me the day just starts easier watching something I like on my smartphone, instead of just sitting around.” With the new hybrid platform, COSMOTE TV launched last year she can do just that. Bringing the best of two worlds together, it combines the features of satellite and IPTV environments. For a country like Greece this is a clear breakthrough, as 95% of the households get pay TV via satellite due to the geographical territory. From high mountains, like Mount Olympus 2.918m, to numerous islands and islets, this gives you an idea how challenging Greece is for telcos overall. On the hybrid platform, subscribers can choose where, when and from which device they wish to enjoy their preferred programs. They create their own TV entertainment, according to their personal profile. Like Stella does: “I watch my favorite series during my daily commutes and have additional time for friends and family,” she admits before setting up the preferences to enjoy the show she missed last night, thanks to the up to 48 hours “turn back time” feature. In this hybrid world, she can start watching on her laptop, make a bookmark and seamlessly continue to watch her favorite movie on any other device.
More than 250.000 subscribers have already migrated to COSMOTE TV hybrid services and the number keeps growing. Kostas is one of them too. He particularly enjoys the exclusive sports content on offer. Especially the NBA All star games where Athens-born Giannis Antetokounmpo’s star shines as the Bucks' primary playmaker and the first Greek NBA All Star player, reviving memories of the Greek basketball golden-era. With a total of more than 8.000 hours of live broadcasting in 2016 on COSMOTE SPORT channels, Kostas’ avid thirst for sports has a tough choice. Top football events, like UEFA Champions League, motorsport, such as Formula1, and tennis, such as ATP World Tour Finals, set his recorder on fire. By connecting his decoder to the Internet, he can record his “best-of” on an external hard drive as well as take a peek on a match’s score while on the go.
There is something in COSMOTE TV for all, even for the “non-tech savvies”: take my mother for example, for whom family entertainment is synonymous to the traditional TV-set in the living-room. Ever since COSMOTE HISTORY, the only documentary channel in Greek TV focusing on Greek history and culture, went on-air, we never talk Sunday evenings. Now there is “Inspirational People” – FAROI, meaning “Beacons”, a word used here metaphorically. It is a new documentary series which premiered this February, hosting in every episode two Greeks, who have become role models. This is the concept behind COSMOTE TV’s latest high-end own production show.
The youngest robot manufacturer in the world, a teenager 3-times world chess champion, the first woman to be a co-pilot on Super Puma helicopters: these real every-day stories captivate my parents and many others. So, we rescheduled our on-line chats but for a good reason – actually more than one, if we think of the duet “business and pleasure”. That’s why next time we will check “behind the scenes” too, at the people in the COSMOTE TV business.
Take a look at the “FAROI” show trailer here and maybe you will look around for COSMOTE TV next time you are in Greece on business or holidays!
