Two contrasting strategies for the development of cable TV services are emerging in Ukraine.
Kommentarii reports that Triolan, the country’s second largest operator with over 200,000 subscribers in 10 cities as of the end of 2010, has implemented a major change in policy.
Citing the high cost of rights, it is now curtailing the distribution of analogue pay-TV channels, which it pays for according to the number of subscribers – typically UAH2.1 (€0.18) each per month for a popular Western service – irrespective of how many viewers they have.
Triolan believes that pay-TV channels are best delivered by IPTV, which the company would like to develop, and would also like to offer subscribers channels over the internet.
This contrasts with the strategy adopted by Volia, the market leader, which had around 1.5 million subscribers in 19 cities as of the end of last year.
Its focus is very much on the development of pay-TV services and it recently added HD channels to its offer.