Flying in the face of the general macro-economic conditions and specific market trends in the region, East Europe’s pay-TV operators are set on the whole to show notable growth, says Digital TV Research.
The analyst predicts in its Eastern Europe Pay TV Operator Forecasts report that 44 of Eastern Europe’s top 64 operators will increase their subscriber bases between 2015 and 2021. The report studied trends across 18 countries on 106 platforms and found that the 64 top operators collectively generated 78% of Eastern Europe’s pay-TV subscribers by end-2015. Digital TV Research believes that market consolidation will see this proportion grow to 84% of the region’s 83.7 million pay-TV subscribers by 2021.
Russia’s Tricolor was found to be the regional leader by subscribers, and is set to gain the most subs, 1.87 million, by 2021. Yet the report also found that despite having more subscribers, Russia’s main operators do not feature as highly in the top ten ranking by subscription and PPV revenues, due to the low fees that they charge. Poland’s Cyfrowy Polsat will remain the revenue market leader, although Russia’s Rostelecom is projected to show the most gain with $132 million.
Other stand-out companies included Liberty Global/UPC which has operations in five Eastern European countries, and is set to grow its collective subscriber count to 4.98 million by 2021.
Commenting on the report, Digital TV Research principal analyst Simon Murray said: “So 20 of the top operators will lose subscribers – or 31% of the total. Perhaps this is not that unpredictable given that the region still had 24.5 million analogue cable TV subscribers by end-2015.”