COMPANY REPORT

IPTV Programming Provider

KartinaTV has its offices in this modern

office building in Wiesbaden, Germany. A total of 33 employees work here and, of those, 10 are in engineering. In an out-sourced call center a total of 60 Russian-language customer service agents work 24 hours a day to take care of subscribers from all over the world.

KartinaTV
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Russian-language TV for the World

Worldwide distribution via the Internet Offers 150 TV channels in Russian with some in HD and 3D Applications for all common operating systems Integrated in Fulans Spark software
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COMPANY REPORT

IPTV Programming Provider

Wiesbaden, Germany

IPTV in Russian
When the company Fulan, creator of the Spark software, integrated an application for KartinaTV into their software, we reported on this programming provider see the 04-05/2012 issue of TELE-audiovision. Now we decided it was time to learn more about whos behind this company by paying them a visit. Oddly enough, we didnt have to travel to Russia to find them; we went around the corner to Wiesbaden, Germany. This is where KartinaTVs headquarters are located and its also where we met up with the founder of KartinaTV, Dimitri Dietrich. Dimitri is originally from Russia. In 1996 I followed my parents from Russia to Germany. He studied at the technical university in Wiesbaden and while on a summer vacation in Croatia in 2007 he was surprised by the guest house owners satellite system that was used to receive Russian-language TV channels. Dimitris wife really liked this and convinced her husband to figure out a way to receive the same

Dimitri Dietrich is CTO and founder

of KartinaTV: he came up with the idea to start an IPTV provider for Russianlanguage TV channels and worked on developing the necessary technolgy for that purpose.

large assortment of Russian-language TV channels at home in Wiesbaden. My wife was actually the driving force behind KartinaTV, remembers Dimitri. My thesis at the university was all about codecs and Internet protocols; I began to set up a business plan. Dimitri soon found an investor and in October of 2007 the company Kartina Digital GmbH was founded. On April 1, 2008, KartinaTV went on the air. Dimitri Dietrich, who today is the CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of Karti-

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naTV, explains to us how it all works: We get the programming out of Russia from IPTV service provider World Stream. The signals find their way to Wiesbaden via fiber optic cable. We then distribute these signals to a total of six servers. Two of these servers are in Europe, two in North America, one in Hong Kong for the Asian market and another in Israel for the Middle Eastern market. As you can see, KartinaTV is established around the world which clearly highlights the fact that the target group, Russian-language TV viewers, are all over the world. But there are those countries that have a greater focus. Maxim Wilhelm, KartinaTVs Executive Manager, tells us more: 58% of our subscribers are here in Germany, after that its the USA with 9%, Israel with 5%, Great Britain with 4%, Finland with 3% and Ireland with also 3%. A comparatively large number of viewers can be found in Japan: 1% of

TELE-audiovision previously reported on the KartinaTV

application in Fulans Spark software in the 04-05/2012 issue. www.TELE-audiovision.com/12/05/spark-Kartina.TV.pdf

Vladimir Martinowitsch, European

Sales Manager (left) and Maxim Wilhelm, Executive Manager (right), in front of a monitor showing KartinaTVs menu.

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 KartinaTV has marked the

locations on this map of the USA where local dealers offer KartinaTV subscriptions and also where most of the subscribers can be found. Its for this reason that KartinaTV offers two streaming servers in the USA: one on the west coast and the other on the east coast.

Newly available from

KartinaTV: this IPTV box.

our subscribers are there. Maxim Wilhelm explains to us how the system works: Viewers get in touch with one of our over 1000 dealers in 108 countries around the world. From there they can take out a yearly subscription after which theyll receive an access code for KartinaTV. More than 80% of their subscribers opt for the IPTV box offered by KartinaTV. The newest model even has a built-in hard drive so that viewers can record TV channels (PVR). But its not

necessary to have an IPTV box: Our programming can also be viewed on an iPad if you download the proper application. You can also view it on a laptop. And, of course, as mentioned before, it also works with the Spark softwares KartinaTV application. KartinaTV can also be loaded on SmartPhones. KartinaTV even has the corresponding applications for Android on its website (www.kartinatv.com). All TV channels offered by KartinaTV are Russian-speaking. We currently

offer roughly 150 TV channels as well as 16 radio channels, we learn from Vladimir Martinowitsch, European Sales Manager. Not every TV channel originates in Russia. We also have channels from the Ukraine, Moldavia, Azerbaijan, The Czech Republic, Tatarstan and Kazakhstan. KartinaTV has had several channels available in HD since January 2011 and even some 3D channels since June 2011. We really have no influence when it comes to HD and 3D channels since this is decided by the TV channels themselves, adds Vladimir Martinwitsch. By concentrating on the target group of Russian-speaking viewers, KartinaTV has consistently been increasing their number of subscribers. KartinaTVs potential covers the entire world thanks to IPTV and because of consistently increasing bandwidths, more and more customers can enjoy these channels in top-notch quality. Dissemination via the Internet is thereby gaining more and more importance.

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