Eastern Europe SVOD Subscriptions to Reach 26M by 2024

Eastern Europe is expected to add 16 million SVOD subscriptions over the next five years, per Digital TV Research’s Eastern Europe OTT TV and Video Forecasts report.

At the end of 2018, the number of subscriptions in the region was recorded at 10.2 million, a number that is forecast to hit 26.19 million by year’s end 2024. It is predicted that Russia will account for 8.77 million and Poland for 6.32 million, for a combined 58 percent of the total number of subscriptions in Eastern Europe.

The growth in the market can be partially attributed to Netflix, which is anticipated to have 8 million subscribers across 22 Eastern European countries by 2024, according to Digital TV Research. This would mark a doubling of the platform’s 2018 performance and represent 30 percent of the regional total.

Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The imminent launches of both Disney+ and Apple TV+ will further boost the sector. We forecast nearly 3 million subscribers for Disney+ by 2024. Apple TV+ will be more modest. We believe that Netflix will thrive despite these rival launches. However, we have downgraded our Amazon Prime Video forecasts. There are no Amazon Prime countries in Eastern Europe at present, so all of its subscribers will be directly paying for the platform.”