The cost of receiving pay-TV services in Ukraine is set to increase by between 15-40% in the New Year.
In a statement, the country’s Association of Rights Owners and Content Providers (APPK) says that news of the increase was announced by its chairman of the board Natalia Klytna at a conference in Kviv earlier this month.
It adds that according to the State Service of Ukraine, in the first half of 2018 the average monthly cost of receiving services for cable subscribers was already UAH72 (€2.27). However, tariffs continue to increase due to significant increases in fees for intellectual property rights by producers of Ukrainian content. The minimum cost for accessing packages containing Ukrainian content is now UAH56-70 a month.
APPK says that while the increase for cable TV subscribers is justified, there is still no level playing field, with satellite and DTT viewers being able to watch Ukrainian channels for free.
However, this will change for the former on May 31, 2019, when satellite start will start to be encrypted.
Meanwhile, the DTT platform operator Zeonbud plans to introduce a pay package.
Its current (free) service, offering around 30 Ukrainian channels, is watched by around a third of Ukrainian viewers.