Hatice Memiguven, COO of Turkish direct-to-home operator Digiturk, believes the major challenge for the company as it rolls out new offerings is to convince households in Turkey the value of pay-TV services. The operator has just over a million subscribers in Turkey.

“Our biggest challenge remains to convince people to pay money for TV services,” Memiguven told Satellite News. “That is the main issue here. We have a number of local, free channels, which are rich in content. We need to convince people that it is worth it to pay for our content. Whatever we are doing, whether it is PVR (personal video recorder), interactivity, everything is part of this strategy. In 2007, we are going to be having more media coverage than the previous two years.”

An exclusive in-depth interview with Hatice Memiguven can be found in the April 3 issue of Satellite News. For more information about subscribing to Access Intelligence’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at https://www.satellitetoday.com