Russia’s pay-TV market enjoyed another good year in 2009 despite the economic crisis, with the number of subscribers rising by 16% to 19 million.
Data produced by iKS-Consulting and published by RBK Daily also shows that the market grew in value by 18% last year to reach R27 billion (€687.2 million).
Satellite operators were the main drivers for growth and saw their share of the market grow from 23% to 27%.
Pay-TV penetration in Russia stood at 36% in 2009, while the five leading players in the market claimed a combined subscriber share of 35%.
The five leading pay-TV companies in descending order were Tricolor, NTK, Comstar-UTS, ER-Telecom and Multiregion.
Tricolor is one of the fastest growing DTH platforms in Europe and according to iKS-Consulting had almost 4.3 million subscribers at year’s end. All four others are cable operators.
