The agreement allows almost 250,000 customers in the region to reach the content of various FilmBox channels. The channels were firstly launched in the Bulgarian market within Mobiltel, followed by Blizoo in the Republic of Macedonia. In the first half of 2015, Telekom Austria Group also plans to introduce the channels in at least two of their other markets.

“With Telekom Austria Group´s ‘direct2home’ broadcast services we proudly bring FilmBox channels not only to Pay-TV operators across the Group´s footprint but also offer those channels to other DTH operators via Eutelsat 16A. This cooperation allows us to deliver premium content to both our footprint and to an extended CEE area,” commented Stefan Amon, Director Wholesale Telekom Austria Group. 
 
The technical satellite distribution service offered by Telekom Austria Group to Filmbox International is composed of video signal transport, encoding, encryption and uplink services, delivered by the Group´s earth station in Aflenz, Austria and its international backbone with more than 200 PoPs – arguably the largest fiber network in Europe. The Filmbox channels’ TV signal is being distributed via the Eutelsat 16A satellite.

“Telekom Austria Group and SPI are two companies eying continuous expansion in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a great opportunity to form a strategic alliance with this important player in the industry,” stated Berk Uziyel, Executive Director of FilmBox International Ltd. 

“We are able to bring not only our thematic channels such us FightBox HD or DocuBox HD to the Balkan countries but we are also currently developing localized movie channels from the FilmBox brand,” said Uziyel, who was negotiating the deal.