Russia ends 1H 2014 with 36.4 million pay TV subscribers

Monday, August 18th, 2014
|
iKS-Consulting logo

iKS-Consulting has released its analysis of the Russian pay TV market at the end of the first half of 2014. Compared with the same point in 2013, the number of pay TV subscribers increased by 10% to exceed 36.4 million, with IPTV growing fastest. Household penetration was 65%, up from 59% a year earlier.

In the country as a whole, there were seven operators with a subscriber base in excess of 1 million households. Tricolor TV had the largest reach with over 10.5 million subscribers. In Moscow, the leading pay TV operator was Rostelecom with more than 3.2 million subscribers.

Operators with a subscriber base of over 1 million – Subscribers (1000s)

  Company        1H2014  1H2013  Growth
                 ------  ------  ------
1 Tricolor TV    10,560   9,500     11%
2 Rostelecom      7,705   6,897     12%
3 ER-Telecom      2,650   2,379     11%
4 MTS             2,595   2,806     -8%
5 Orion Express   2,320   1,360     71%
6 Akado           1,129   1,114      1%
7 VimpelCom       1,061   1,013      5%

Top 5 pay-TV operators in Moscow – Subscribers (1000s)

  Company        1H2014  1H2013  Growth
                 ------  ------  ------
1 Rostelecom      3,219   3,143      2%
2 Akado           1,016   1,014      0%
3 Tricolor TV       568     542      5%
4 VimpelCom         196     173     13%
5 NTV Plus          156     155      0%

By technology, cable TV had the largest share at 50%, though this is down from 54% at the end of the first half of 2013. Both satellite and IPTV took market share from cable TV. Satellite TV ended the first half with 14 million subscribers, with IPTV growing by 29% to 4.1 million.

Pay-TV market share by technology

Technology    1H2014  1H2013  Growth
              ------  ------  ------
Cable TV         50%     54%      4%
Satellite TV     38%     36%     18%
IPTV             11%     10%     29%

iKS-Consulting expects that in 2018, satellite will have taken 40% of the market, IPTV 12%, with cable TV reducing to 48%. Household penetration is expectedd to reach 72%.