Digital TV in CEE – PRAGUE. Russia’s leading DTH platform Tricolor TV, and indeed its satellite market in general, has no churn to speak of, according to Anna Soppova, PR Director, CJSC National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV).
Speaking in a panel entitled Combating churn and delivering revenue growth in pay-TV, she added that its secret of success was ease in connection, ease in use and a competitive price of €15 a year for its main package, which is cheap by even Russian standards.
Tricolor TV offers its customers a basic package for free and a number of cheap additional packages, including one containing HD channels, for low prices.
The Russian cable operator Akado, on the other hand, according to Alexander Kosarev, its deputy head of network operations and development market, cannot compete with Tricolor TV in terms of subscriber numbers.
However, its focus in the last three years has been on improving quality of service. It has also managed to reduce a previously worrying high churn in internet services by moving from DOCSIS 2.0 to 3.0, with it now being stable and at the same level as for TV services.
Akado offers over 200 channels in a large number of packages, which on average cost $12 – 15 (€9.6-12) a month to receive.
Pawel Fecko, sales and customer care director, INEA, meanwhile said that the Polish operator tries not to compete on price and aims to increase its ARPU.
Perhaps the most surprising statement of the conference so far was made by Soppova, who said that the company is perfectly happy to call itself a cable operator in order to reassure customers, who ultimately just want a hassle-free service.
