Pay-TV is likely to lose out at the expense of DTT in Poland this year, though both Cyfrowy Polsat and UPC should gain market share.
In the findings of a B2B study featuring interviews with 30 heads of distribution (or managers or specialists) at TV channels, ScreenLovers notes that almost half (47%) said that pay-TV would be overshadowed by DTT, with 37% predicting the status quo to continue. Barely one in five (17%) expected the number of pay-TV subscribers to grow in 2017.
Looking at the DTH sector, Cyfrowy Polsat and Orange were expected to gain market share by 43% and 33% of respondents respectively, and they also saw nc+ losing market share. UPC would gain in the cable sector, with bot Vectra and Multimedia facing tough times.
Looking specifically at subscriber numbers, one in three felt that UPC would gain the most, followed by Cyfrowy Polsat (27%) and Orange (20%). Almost two-thirds (60%) predicted nc+ would lose customers.
Almost tw-thirds were also of the view that Cyfrowy Polsat had the best basic offer, while nc+ (60%) led in premium.
UPC was also rated as having the best VOD offer (40%), with Vectra the worst (23%).
Respondents also predicted that the CPS (Cost Per Subscriber) would fall this year, with the majority identifying a range of 0-10%.
Interestingly, respondents identified Cyfrowy Polsat (43%) as the toughest negotiator with TV channels, followed by nc+ (30%).
