Pay-TV booms as cash-strapped Greeks shun depressing news shows

Eleni Chrepa

Panagiota Fotou is so fed up with bad news on Greek free television that she’s willing to pay for programs that help her forget about her country’s economic woes.

The 29-year-old full-time homemaker spends about 70 euros ($95.35) a month, the equivalent of 12 percent of the minimum monthly wage in Greece, for pay TV, telephone and Internet services at a moment in which the economic crisis has left one in three people without a job and consumer spending stagnating. Fotou prefers watching movies, crime shows and situation comedies on Forthnet SA’s Nova TV, which is part of the bundle.

“People are tired of crisis-related bulletins,” says Fotou, flicking through channels at her Athens apartment. “Pay- TV may be an extra expense, but the deals are tempting.”

Greeks like Fotou are contributing to what the country’s two biggest telecom service providers Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA and Forthnet say is a doubling of subscribers to combined TV and online packages in the past two years. The increase comes even as unemployment climbed to 27 percent and retail sales plunged for a fourth consecutive year.

Earlier this month, Hellenic Telecom, also known as OTE, offered as much as 300 million euros for the Nova pay-TV unit of Forthnet, its main competitor in Greece. Forthnet’s board is weighing the offer, the company said on July 1. Hellenic Telecom, 40 percent owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, said its offer is on a debt-free, cash-free basis and Greek regulators would have to approve any deal.

OTE had 280,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2014, according to OTE and Forthnet estimates. A takeover of Nova would make OTE the top player, overtaking Forthnet.

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