Russia ended 2016 with 41.2 million households receiving pay-TV services.
Quoting data produced by iKS-Consulting, TelecomDaily reports that this represented a 4.9% increase on the total a year earlier.
ARPU rose slightly (by 3.4%) to R152 (€2.44), with the market being worth R73.2 billion (+8.7%).
Although pay-TV penetration increased to 72.8% of households (+3.4%) in 2016, growth was uneven and the highest in Siberia, the Far East and Urals.
Tricolor TV remained the leading provider of pay-TV services, folowed by Rostelecom. Together they accounted for 52% of the total market and 53% of revenues.
Third placed ER Telecom was just ahead of Orion Express, which grew by 10.6% in 2016, with MTS, stemming its decline of recent years, in fifth place.
Meanwhile, TelecomDaily itself paints a slightly different picture with its own figures. These show that Tricolor TV was still the market leader in 2016, ending the year with 12.14 million customers, up 340,000 on 12 months earlier.
Rostelecom showed the biggest growth in 2016, gaining 800,000 customers, while Orion Express was still in third place, its subscriber total increasing by 153,000 to reach 2.953 million.
Tricolor TV had a 29% share of the market, with Rostelecom claiming 27% and Orion Express, ER Telecom and MTS 7% each.
