In December 2010 OJSC North-West Telecom launched on a commercial basis the interactive Avangard TV television service in Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Murmansk Oblasts.

The novelty that will be first used by subscribers of the above region s is the upgraded Subscriber User Interface (SUI) of the service . The new SUI was developed and introduced jointly with the Russian systems integrator Business Computer Centre (BCC).

The basic distinctive features of the new interface are the increased work speed, intuitive control, easy access to the key items of the menu, and new additional service s: Weather Forecast, Currency Exchange Rate s, etc. Besides, the new interface makes it possible to display on the main first page an advertising banner, with which subscribers of the Avangard TV service will be able to learn about new videos and hits in the video collection of the Video on Demand (VoD) service and to quickly order a video they like for viewing.

“The future undoubtedly belongs to Pay TV, which is winning the audience in Russia. According to analysts’ forecasts, in a couple of years IP TV will grow by about 25-30%, which will outstrip even the development rate of broadband access,” Oleg Popov, Deputy CEO, Chief Commercial Director of OJSC N.W. Telecom, notes. “And our Company is doing much to further improve the quality and accessibility of the Avangard TV service, regularly updating the video collection, increasing the number of channels and additional interactive service s and upgrading the interface.”

Today there are about 30,500 subscribers of Avangard TV digital interactive television in the four region s of the Northwestern Federal District. Avangard TV is available in St. Petersburg, Novgorod, Kaliningrad oblasts and in the Republic of Komi.