According to Dataxis, Southeast European Pay TV and Telecom provider United Group has shown significant growth over the last 3 years, driven by major acquisitions. The consultancy agrees that the company, who historically present in Serbia and a handful of neighboring markets, is now operating – in addition to its domestic market – across Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and since more recently in Bulgaria and Greece.
This was seen for Dataxis as an expansion driven by two new key markets for United In 2018, when United announced that they were planning to invest over €600 million in the Balkans over the next five years. Bulgaria and Greece specifically appeared to be high-potential countries in the United’s eyes: the media segments in these markets are rapidly growing, especially in terms of video consumption. Both markets are therefore driving the substantial investments the group is planning for the upcoming years.
‘This strategy is already paying off in Bulgaria where United acquired Vivacom back in the summer of 2020. Indeed, United Group’s Pay TV subscribers have increased significantly during the last 3 years and that enabled them to reduce the gap with its main competitors locally. In fact, between 2020 and 2022, Bulsatcom lost more than 100k subscribers while A1 grew its Pay TV users’ volume by 9%, which is significantly less than Vivacom’s 30% growth rate over the same period’, explained the report.
