Russia’s pay-TV market is close to saturation, with IPTV contributing the most to its relatively slow growth.
Data produced by TMT Consulting and published by ComNews shows that there were 142,000 new IPTV connections in the country in the second quarter. At the same time, the number of DTH subscribers grew by 130,000, while the cable TV subscriber total fell by 43,000. The incumbent telco Rostelecom accounted for around 70% of new IPTV subscribers and Tricolor TV led DTH with 46,000.
However, the star performer in terms of new additions was the cable operator ER Telecom. It gained 357,000 new customers in Q2, growing its base by 10.7%.
Cable still had a greater share of pay-TV subscribers (42%) than DTH (39%) and IPTV (19%). It also accounted for nearly half (46%) of revenues, with IPTV and DTH claiming 29% and 25% respectively.
All told, there were 43.4 million pay-TV subscribers at the end of Q2, or 0.5% more than three months earlier, with the penetration standing at 76%.
ARPU excluding VAT was R168 (€2.3), or R2 more than a year earlier.
Tricolor TV was the leading pay-TV operator in terms of subscribers, accounting for 28% of the total, followed by Rostelecom (23%), ER Telecom (9%), MTS (8%), Orion Express (7%) and others (25%).
Rostelecom claimed the highest share of revenues (33%), with Tricolor TV accounting for 18%, ER Telecom 10%, MTS 8% and others 31%.
Due to acquisitions and organic growth, the top five pay-TV operators saw their subscriber base grow by a total of 650,000. At the same time, other providers lost a combined total of almost 330,000 subscribers.
Significantly, growth in Moscow has stopped, with the subscriber base not exceeding 5.7 million for the third quarter in a row.
While MGTS and Rostelecom saw small increases in Q2, they were much smaller than a year earlier.
Any new connections in Moscow were cancelled out by analogue cable TV moving to internet services or other forms of entertainment.
