Change is in the air for the TV industries in Russia and Ukraine.
While the conflict in the latter’s Donbas region has certainly had an adverse effect on both, there are growing signs of improvement, particularly in Russia.
International sanctions, coupled with a slump in oil prices, hit the country particularly badly towards the end of 2014 and earlier this year. Now, however, the pressure appears to have eased, if only to a degree, with the slowdown in the TV ad market not turning out to be as bad as had been previously feared.
Indeed, as we have reported this week in Broadband TV News, TV ad revenues in Q1 were 22% lower than in the same period last year. Not an impressive figure, but better than the 25-30% forecast in February.
What is more, it is now expected that that TV ad revenues for H1 will only be 20% lower than a year earlier. Again, this will be much better than previously forecast.
There are other positive signs, admittedly against a backdrop of what is still considered to be a crisis. In the pay-TV sector, for instance, the DTH platform Orion Express saw its subscriber base grow by an impressive 3% in the first quarter.
At the same time, Rostelecom continues to drive growth in the country’s IPTV sector. It already accounts for over half of a market that is easily expected to exceed five million subscribers by the end of this year.
OTT is also becoming a force to be reckoned with in Russia, with the value of the legal market growing by 58% in 2014 and projected to increase by a further 45% this year.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, one of the biggest casualties of the conflict in the east of the country has been the cable market. On the other hand, there has been growth in both the DTH and OTT sectors.
There has also been an important development in the last few days, with the enactment of legislation that will effectively transform what is currently the state broadcaster into a joint stock company.
This could in due course act as a catalyst for changes elsewhere in the Ukrainian TV industry.
