Romania ended 2016 with around 7.3 million subscribers to pay-TV service, or 3% more than a year earlier.
According to data published by the regulator ANCOM, 4.7 million of the total subscribed to cable, 2.4 million to DTH and 95,000 to IPTV.
Significantly, the number receiving digital cable services grew by 10% in 2016, while IPTV take-up increased by 14% and the DTH subscriber level was relatively unchanged.
Pay-TV penetration as a whole stood at over 97% of households.
Within the pay-TV universe, 65% received cable and 33% DTH services, with the majority of urban residents (81%) opting for the former and rural ones (58%) for the latter.
IPTV subscribers accounted for 1.3% of the total and were overwhelmingly (97%) urban dwellers.
Take-up of digital services grew by 5% in 2016 to around 4.6 million, or 63% of the total subscriber base.
Of these, 45% (2.1 million) used cable networks.
The cable subscriber total as a whole grew by 4% in 2016, though when broken down increased by 9% in rural and 4% in urban areas.
Cable penetration stood at almost 84% in urban and over 37% in rural areas as of the end of 2016.
Digital penetration among cable subscribers was 44%, or three percentage points more than 12 months earlier.
