Problems mount for Bulgaria’s Satellite BG  The
Bulgarian DTH platform Satellite BG has run into serious difficulties,
with its owners facing the threat of bankruptcy.Capital reports that the
service is no longer accepting new customers and its subscriber total
has fallen to only around a tenth of the 50,000 it stood at a few years
ago.Satellite BG has had a chequered history, starting off life as ITV
Partner before being renamed Total TV and more recently Satellite BG.In
each instance it had a different owners, with the most high profile
being Mid Europa Partners (MEP), which bought ITV Partner in 2009.MEP
had ambitious plans for the platform, intending to invest €45 million
and double its market share from 15% to 30%, but these never
materialised.Eventually it was sold on to the local entrepreneurs
Ljubomir Pavlov and Rumen Atarski, who were behind the station TV7.There
then followed an agreement with Mobiltel, making the service available
to the latter’s customers in 11 Bulgarian cities.However, this quickly
folded and Satellite BG now finds itself in financial difficulties.Its
main creditor is UniCredit Bulbank and even a sale may not be able to
pay off all the platform’s debts.Satellite BG is distributed from the
23.5 degrees East position and operates in a DTH market also served by
Vivacom and Bulsatcom.This will shortly be joined by a new platform
operated by Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc) and
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