Pay TV penetration to reach 74% in Russia in 2017

According to a J’son & Partners Consulting study, pay TV penetration in Russia in 2012 reached 58%, a rate expected to grow to 74% in 2017.

The Russian market for pay TV is one of the largest in the world with 31.9 million households connected to cable, satellite or IPTV at the end of 2012, up from 28.7 million at the end of the previous year.

IPTV was the fastest growing segment last year increasing by 62%, giving it an overall share of 8%. Contributing to the rapid growth of IPTV was the increase in Russian broadband penetration to 48%. The market leaders for IPTV are Rostelecom, VimpelCom and MTS.

Satellite TV grew 19% in the same period, to 34% of pay TV households. The growth in satellite TV subscribers was mainly due to Tricolor TV which accounted for 1.3 million of the 1.8 million additional subscribers. Tricolor TV’s subscriber base increased 17% in the year.

Cable television still accounts for more than half of all pay-TV subscribers at 58%, but this is a 4 percentage point decline since 2011.

Russia pay TV market shares:

Tricolor TV  28%
Rostelecom   21%
MTS           9%
ER-Telecom    7%
Akado         4%