Digital Pay TV Set for Surge in Eastern Europe

LONDON: The number of digital pay-TV subs in Eastern Europe is forecast to increase from 26.1 million in 2010 to 45 million in 2013 and on to 73.6 million by 2020, Digital TV Research reports.

In 2010, 21.5 percent of TV households in Eastern Europe had digital pay TV; that figure rose to 36.6 percent in 2013 and is expected to reach 58.2 percent by 2020.

The number of digital TV homes is set to triple between 2010 and 2020, increasing from 41 million to 124.7 million. Of the 52.3 million digital TV homes to be added between 2013 and 2020, DTT will account for 24.9 million, digital cable 15.3 million, IPTV 6.6 million and pay satellite TV 5.8 million.

From the 83.6 million digital TV homes to be added between 2010 and 2020, Russia will contribute 40.7 million, with Ukraine increasing by 13.3 million and Poland by 6.7 million.

Pay-TV revenues in the region are forecast to be 48-percent higher in 2020 than they were in 2010, increasing from $4.944 billion to $7.305 billion. Russia will contribute $2.02 billion (28 percent) of the pay-TV revenues in 2020, overtaking Poland in 2015. Russia is also expected to be responsible for nearly half of the region's $1.1 billion annual pay-TV revenues between 2013 and 2020.

Simon Murray, author of the report, said: “For the purposes of this report, we have assumed that the situation in the Ukraine will be resolved quickly, with Russia withdrawing from the Crimea.”

Murray added: “With the proportion of terrestrial homes settling, much of the emphasis from pay-TV players has fallen on the 27.5 million remaining analogue cable subscribers. Many of these homes will upgrade to digital cable, but some will shift to IPTV and satellite TV. However, many of the remaining analogue cable subscribers are refuseniks, who don’t want to pay more for TV services. As time goes on, the proportion of the remaining analogue cable homes with this attitude increases. Free-to-air DTT (or even pay DTT) is an attractive option for these homes.”