The first half of this year was the most successful to date for the Russian DTH platform operator Orion’s B2B activities.
However, its satellite TV business, according to the company’s general director Krill Makhnovsky, did not perform so well. This was largely due to the saturated nature of the pay-TV market, viewers opting for streamed internet services and a slowdown in the number of new connections.
Orion’s B2B activities in H1 included the signing of a number of strategic partnership agreements, among them with the largest international majors present in Russia.
Orion ended June with 3,138,000 subscribers, while its revenues in H1 were 1% more than in the same period in 2017.
DTH services accounted for 71% of its portfolio, broadcasting services and the upgrade and production of TV channels 25% and channel distribution 4%.
ARPU is H1 was R109 (€1.5) for its budget and R288 for its mid-priced packages.
Orion’s online services continued to grow in popularity, with number of channels in Telekarta Online being increased by 10 over 80 in H1.
During the first half of the year the application was downloaded by over 8,000 people, or 14% more than in H1 2017.
All told, it has been downloaded over 60,000 times since its launch.
Meanwhile, the number of installations of the mobile app Telegrid increased by 27% in H1 and the total number now exceeds 115,000.
