Five million fewer pay TV subscribers for Eastern Europe in 2026

Friday, March 26th, 2021
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Eastern Europe to add six million digital pay TV subs

Eastern Europe will lose nearly 5 million pay TV subscribers between 2020 and 2026 to take the total to 78.18 million. Not great – but not as bad as the US.

Eastern Europe: Homes by platform - Pay Satellite TV, FTA Satellite TV, Pay IPTV, Digital cable TV, Analog cable TV, Pay DTT, FTA DTT, Analog Terrestrial - 2020, 2021, 2026

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Most of the remaining analog cable TV subscribers are paying very little to receive very little. These homes are reluctant or unable to upgrade to more expensive digital pay TV.”

There were still 12.6 million analog cable subscribers by end-2020.

The number of digital pay TV subscribers will increase by nearly 6 million between 2020 and 2026 to 76 million.

Pay TV will be taken by 63% of the region’s TV homes in 2026; down from 66% in 2020. Digital pay TV penetration will climb from 56% to 62% over the same period.