Cable operators in Russia are of the view that not all their customers wish to switch from analogue to digital TV services.
What is more, according to Yuri Pripachkin, the head of the country’s cable association AKTR, quoted by AKTR and comnews, operators may wish to retain analogue services in order to gain subscribers when the country completes its transition to digital (terrestrial) broadcasting.
He added that in countries such as Germany and Spain, operators had seen their subscriber totals increase by 20-25% for several months following ASO.
Russia’s cable industry is not bound by the international treaties that require the switch off of analogue terrestrial TV signals. In its case, the latter will undertaken in stages and should be concluded before 2017.