Russia’s pay-TV subscriber total increased by 10% to 36.4 million in the first half of the year, according to data produced by iKS Consulting.
Published by AKTR and TelecomDaily, the total includes in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia earlier this year.
Tricolor TV remained the leading provider of services, with 10.56 million subscribers and a 29% market share.
It was followed by Rostelecom (7.7 million) and ER Telecom (2.65 million), with the three claiming a combined market share of 51%.
The top seven providers meanwhile had a combined market share of 77%.
The DTH platform Orion Express was the star performer in H1, growing its subscriber base by 71%, compared to an average of 10-11% recorded by other pay-TV companies.
Only one provider – MTS – saw its subscriber total decrease, in Q1 rather than H1, though at the same time its ARPU increased by 5% year-on-year.
Moscow remains a unique market in the pay-TV sector, with the number of subscribers exceeding the number of households. At the same time, the five leading providers of pay-TV service claimed a combined market share of 97%.
Although cable remains the main method of reception of pay-TV in Russia, accounting for 50% of subscribers, take-up of DTH and satellite is growing faster.
Indeed, by 2018 they will account for 40% and 12% of subscribers respectively, with cable falling to 48%.
By then, pay-TV penetration will stand at over 72%.
TelecomDaily notes that growth in pay-TV has generally slowed in Russia. It also puts the subscriber total as 35.5 million as of the end of June.
