Romanian ProTV reaches agreement with Romtelecom on disputed TV channels

Romanian telephone and cable service operator Romtelecom and local media trust ProTV S.A. have reached an agreement under which 11 channels ProTV will reenter the programming of Romtelecom's TV division Dolce, according to a press release from Romtelecom. The deal follows months of acrimonious dispute between the two companies. ProTV announced with the consent of Romtelcom, that its channels (Pro TV, Acasă TV, Pro Cinema, Acasă Gold, sport.ro, MTV, Pro TV Internaţional, VH1, Pro TV HD, Acasă HD şi sport.ro HD)will also be running oline, on the voyo.ro platform, even after being back in the Dolce programming. Even with the return of Pro TV channels, Romtelecom will keep BBC Knowledge, Comedy Central, Shorts and BBC World News on Dolce TV. These channels, introduced from January 3, 2013, are still available in core packages for satellite TV platforms and Web TV - IPTV, until 31 March 2013. Thereafter, these channels will remain on Dolce TV, but will be distributed in different program packages. Romtelecom withdrew 11 channels from the Pro TV Dolce Group on January 3, citing "unreasonable financial demands made by Pro TV on Romtelecom, a threefold increase in the cost of dissemination". At that time, Romtelecom said: "the increase of these costs by Pro TV SA, which are not consistent with market realities, would automatically involve higher costs for subscriptions of Romtelecom customers." At that time, Pro TV announced that "Romtelecom has not agreed the renewal conditions required by Pro TV for the television contract for retransmission of the channels in the Pro TV portfolio." ProTV complained that Romtelecom was unwilling to offer a price that reflected the value of the 11 ProTV channels. Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com (photo source: sxc.hu)