Cable services are now received in 40% of Russian homes, according to I.U. Pripachkin, the president of the country’s cable association AKTR.
Speaking at a press conference organised ahead of this year’s CSTB and quoted by the association and iksmedia, he added that the figure is likely to rise to over 50% by the end of the year.
Commenting on the pay-TV market, K. Ankilova, the director of iKS-Consulting, added that operators’ revenues from pay-TV services in 2010 amounted to R33 billion (€812 million) and that the pay-TV market had grown by 14% during the year.
However, saturation was now being reached in some locations – in Moscow, for instance, penetration now stood at 98% – and growth nationally was likely to fall back to 10%. Around two thirds of pay-TV viewing in Russia is via cable and one third via DTH.
Although IPTV is growing in popularity, especially in Moscow and the far east of the country, its take up is still small – now around half a million homes according to these sources, though a figure of over one million has previously been given.
Pripachkin added that he did not expect DTT to have a significant effect on the pay-TV marketplace. He also said that analogue services are likely to continue on cable for some time following ASO of analogue terrestrial services in 2015 and for cable viewing to increase following the switch off date.
