These are exciting times for Russia’s TV industry, by far and away the largest and certainly one of the most dynamic in the CEE region.
Despite the huge uncertainty surrounding the global economy, Russia’s GDP grew by an impressive 4.3% in 2011, fuelled by a strong recovery in consumer demand, and could expand at a similar rate this year.
This almost inevitably works its way down to the TV industry, which finds itself in a period of enormous change. Readers of Broadband TV News will be already aware of how quickly the country’s pay-TV market is growing, fuelled in no small part by the success of the DTH platform Tricolor TV. It ended 2011 with 9.5 million subscribers, or 31% more than a year earlier, and of these some 7.5 million were paying customers. Almost 30 million people, or one fifth of the population, now watch Tricolor TV, and its subscriber total is projected to grow by a further 30% this year.
Predictions as to how the pay-TV market in general will perform in Russia over the next few years vary widely. From a satellite perspective, the head of Tricolor TV said late last year that he expected the number of homes receiving DTH services to reach 17.4 million by the end of 2014. Two years later, satellite would account for 52% of the market, with cable and IPTV claiming the remaining 48%.
At present, IPTV take-up appears to be growing much faster than cable or DTH, with Rostelecom, one of the leading providers, claiming a total of over 500,000 subscribers for its regional affiliates. However, it is still living very much in the shadow of the other two delivery platforms.
Russia is also making good progress in its transition to digital broadcasting and took the decision last autumn to use the DVB-T2 standard. This should eventually translate into – thanks to cooperation with such companies as Samsung – the launch of HD DTT channels. Indeed, the first trials HD trials are likely to start as soon as this spring.
OTT services are also very much on the agenda in Russia, with the leading telcos VimpelCom, MegaFon and MTS at the forefront of developments. Indeed, all three are currently showing a strong interest in content delivery networks (CDNs).
While the future is always hard to predict, it is probably a safe bet to say that 2012 will be another eventful and largely positive year for the TV industry in Russia.
