Russian pay TV market may hit RUB 40bn in 2011

2012-01-04



The Russian pay TV services market is estimated to increase by 19% year on year to approximately RUB 40bn (€993m) in 2011, while the total number of the subscribers is estimated at 26 million and penetration rate to exceed 50%, iKS-Consulting reported.
In 2015, the pay TV services are projected to grow to RUB 60bn (€1.49bn) and to be provided to 35 million of Russia’s inhabitants.
The ongoing qualitative changes of the Russian pay TV market include an increasing number of TV channels offered by main operators, introduction of 3D and HD television, as well as the growing interest in IPTV. iKS-Consulting forecasts the internet television to account for a 10% share of the Russian pay TV market in 2015 in terms of the subscribers. IPTV providers started to offer value-added services such as video on demand (VOD), which resulted in an increase of their ARPU in 2011.
According to Valeria Kuzmenko, press-secretary of MTS, the markets of pay TV and broadband internet in Russia are developing simultaneously and in the next several years the providers will be transferring TV services in the digital format and offering interactive services to the users. However, the development of broadband services also causes a migration of TV users to the internet and its legal and illegal video content.
Currently, the five largest operators account for 72% of the country’s pay TV subscribers’ base, with Tricolor being the leader of the market.

The largest pay TV providers in Russia by subscribers, December 2011
iKS-Consulting, 2011
Operator	Offered technology	Number of subscribers (million)
Tricolor TV	Satellite TV	7.60
Rostelecom	IPTV, cable TV	5.45
MTS	IPTV, cable TV	2.78
Er-Telecom	Cable TV	1.73
Akado	Cable TV	1.08