A new DTH platform operating under the MTS brand will launch in Russia in Q4 this year.
Kommersant reports that this follows the award of a licence by Roskomnadzor to Digital Broadcasting (DB), a ‘grand daughter’ company of AFK Sistema.
DB, which was required to pay a participation fee of R1.8 million (€37,606) and one-off fee of R90 million to secure the licence, will employ the ABS-2 satellite to deliver the new service.
Although a mobile company, MTS is also a leading provider of pay-TV services in Russia, with some 2.6 million subscribers.
This puts it in third place with a market share of 7.5%, behind NSC (29%) and Rostelecom (21.7%).
