1. 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
Russian-language • Worldwide distribution via the Internet
• Offers 150 TV channels in Russian with some in
TV for the World
HD and 3D
• Applications for all common operating systems
• Integrated in Fulan’s Spark software
224 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com www.TELE-audiovision.com — 01-02/2013 — TELE-audiovision International — 全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志 225

2. COMPANY REPORT IPTV Programming Provider
ë Wiesbaden,
Germany
IPTV
■ Dimitri Dietrich is CTO and founder
of KartinaTV: he came up with the idea
to start an IPTV provider for Russian-
language TV channels and worked on
in Russian
developing the necessary technolgy for
that purpose.
When the company Fulan, creator of and it’s also where we met up with the large assortment of Russian-language
the Spark software, integrated an ap- founder of KartinaTV, Dimitri Dietrich. TV channels at home in Wiesbaden.
plication for KartinaTV into their soft- “My wife was actually the driving force
ware, we reported on this program- Dimitri is originally from Russia. “In behind KartinaTV”, remembers Dimi-
ming provider – see the 04-05/2012 1996 I followed my parents from Rus- tri. “My thesis at the university was all
issue of TELE-audiovision. sia to Germany.” He studied at the about codecs and Internet protocols; I
technical university in Wiesbaden and began to set up a business plan.”
Now we decided it was time to learn while on a summer vacation in Croatia
more about who’s behind this company in 2007 he was surprised by the guest Dimitri soon found an investor and
by paying them a visit. Oddly enough, house owner’s satellite system that in October of 2007 the company Kar-
we didn’t have to travel to Russia to was used to receive Russian-language tina Digital GmbH was founded. On
find them; we went around the corner TV channels. Dimitri’s wife really liked April 1, 2008, KartinaTV went on the
to Wiesbaden, Germany. This is where this and convinced her husband to air. Dimitri Dietrich, who today is the
KartinaTV’s headquarters are located figure out a way to receive the same CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of Karti-
226 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com

3. naTV, explains to us how it all works:
“We get the programming out of Rus-
sia 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 estab-
lished around the world which clear-
ly 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, KartinaTV’s Ex-
ecutive Manager, tells us more: “58%
of our subscribers are here in Germa-
ny, after that it’s the USA with 9%,
Israel with 5%, Great Britain with 4%,
Finland with 3% and Ireland with also ■ TELE-audiovision previously reported on the KartinaTV
3%.” A comparatively large number of application in Fulan’s Spark software in the 04-05/2012 issue.
viewers can be found in Japan: “1% of 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
KartinaTV’s menu.
228 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com

4. ■ 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.
It’s for this reason that KartinaTV
offers two streaming servers in the
USA: one on the west coast and the
other on the east coast.
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, Ta-
tarstan and Kazakhstan.” KartinaTV
has had several channels available in
HD since January 2011 and even some
■ Newly available from 3D channels since June 2011. “We re-
KartinaTV: this IPTV
box. ally have no influence when it comes
to HD and 3D channels since this is
decided by the TV channels them-
selves”, adds Vladimir Martinwitsch.
our subscribers are there.” necessary to have an IPTV box: “Our
programming can also be viewed on By concentrating on the target
Maxim Wilhelm explains to us how an iPad if you download the proper group of Russian-speaking viewers,
the system works: “Viewers get in application. You can also view it on a KartinaTV has consistently been in-
touch with one of our over 1000 deal- laptop.” And, of course, as mentioned creasing their number of subscribers.
ers in 108 countries around the world. before, it also works with the Spark
From there they can take out a yearly software’s KartinaTV application. Kar- KartinaTV’s potential covers the en-
subscription after which they’ll re- tinaTV can also be loaded on Smart- tire world thanks to IPTV and because
ceive an access code for KartinaTV.” Phones. KartinaTV even has the corre- of consistently increasing bandwidths,
More than 80% of their subscribers sponding applications for Android on more and more customers can enjoy
opt for the IPTV box offered by Kar- its website (www.kartinatv.com). these channels in top-notch qual-
tinaTV. The newest model even has a ity. Dissemination via the Internet is
built-in hard drive so that viewers can All TV channels offered by KartinaTV thereby gaining more and more im-
record TV channels (PVR). But it’s not are Russian-speaking. “We currently portance.
230 TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine — 01-02/2013 — www.TELE-audiovision.com