United Group’s Greek operator Forthnet announce that it is officially changing its name to Nova. As part of the change – which aligns the company’s name with its consumer-facing brand – Nova is refreshing its visual identity to mark the beginning of a whole new era for the company and the Greek market.

Backed by 100-percent owner United Group, Nova is in the midst of a total transformation. United Group is the leading provider of telecommunications and media services in Southeast Europe, serving 11 million users and producing 55 channels across 8 countries. The Group is majority owned by BC Partners, one of the world’s largest global investment companies, with Nikos Stathopoulos as its Managing Partner.

“This is the beginning of a dynamic new era for Nova. We are building on the innovative heritage of the company and transforming Nova into a strong contender in the Greek telecom and media market – applying all of our considerable experience, expertise, and scale to do so,” said United Group Chief Executive Officer Victoriya Boklag.

Nova has historically been the biggest investor in pay-TV content in Greece with an annual expenditure of roughly €100 million. With the regional scale of United Group, the entertainment and sports offering of Nova will be stronger than ever.

Along with the Greek Football Championship, EuroLeague and other sports traditionally broadcast on Nova, from next season Greek fans will enjoy thrilling new additions to the line-up that bring non-stop action from the world’s most-talked-about sporting events. This includes their favourite teams battling it out in the UEFA qualifiers, Bundesliga, and LaLiga as well as superstar athletes going head-to-head during Wimbledon, the Davis Cup, and the ATP Cup.

Nova also has FIBA basketball competitions, Football Coppa Italia, the Dutch and Belgian leagues and much, much more.

Nova CEO Panayotis Georgiopoulos said investments are also being made to build new infrastructure, implement new technologies and IT systems, develop new products, reshape the Nova brand, and transform customer touchpoints.

As part of Phase 1 of its plan United Group is investing an additional €50 million in the company through the end of the year. This comes on top of €150 million spent on the acquisition and restructuring of the business over the past six months. Phase 2 of United Group’s plan for Nova with a five-year horizon is now under development.

Georgiopoulos emphasized that an important goal for the company is to secure access to open NGA networks and – wherever possible – to build its own infrastructure to ensure that Nova can offer the winning combination of fast internet, new technologies, leading content, and the best user experience to Greek businesses and consumers.

“We are hard at work now developing great new products and services for customers. Greek consumers can expect new products to be introduced already after the summer. Over the next few months you will see significant changes being made and new offerings,” he said.

“There’s so much more to come. It’s a thrilling time to be part of the company,” said Georgiopoulos, who joined Nova in April as part of the new management and expertise that United Group is bringing in to transform the operator.

Boklag said that United Group, which operates many of Southeast Europe’s most successful telecommunications and media brands, was excited by the opportunities that it sees in the Greek market.

“We believe our entry into the Greek market will stimulate competition and innovation, to the benefit of Greek consumers,” Boklag added.