What does the future hold in store for pay-TV services in Central and Eastern Europe?
A report published by Singapore-based ABI Research earlier this week said that the total number of pay-TV subscribers worldwide is expected to exceed 936.4 million at the end of this year, generating $280.4 billion in service revenue. It also forecast that the respective figures are likely to rise to 1.1 billion and $331 billion by 2019, with emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America having a higher growth rate than mature ones in the years to come.
Clearly, several countries in the CEE region already fall into the latter category, thanks largely to high penetration of cable and DTH services.
Take the case of Poland and Russia, which also happen to be the two largest TV markets and where we are already seeing some interesting developments.
In Poland, a report produced by the media house MEC entitled Projekt Cyfrowizja has found that around one in three cable and DTH viewers are now considering cancelling their subscriptions, with dissatisfaction apparently higher among the latter.
It cites several reasons for this, including the obvious one about high prices. However, what is new, or certainly wouldn’t have been heard a year or two ago, is the wide choice of channels that can now be received free of charge via DTT.
That is not to say that viewers are unwilling to pay to receive TV channels, especially those considered to be of high quality. They include top international brands such as Discovery, Nat Geo and AXN, along with the news-based TVN24.
Meanwhile in Russia, there has been a noticeable slowdown this year in the growth of the country’s hitherto booming pay-TV market.
Again, there are several reasons for this, with the most obvious being that it is saturated, especially in the main population centres. While there is still growth potential in certain regions, including Siberia and the Far East, this can only be realised through investment.
However, given the increasingly parlous state of Russia’s economy, it may not be forthcoming anytime soon.
Pay-TV certainly has a future in CEE, but the heady days of strong growth now increasingly look like a thing of the past in its more developed markets.
