Growth in Russia’s pay-TV market slowed to 3.2% in 2018, according to the latest data published by TMT Consulting.
This compared to 3.8% in 2017, and as of the end of last year there were 44.2 million pay-TV subscribers in the country. With penetration already exceeding 77%, the market was close to saturation.
Pay-TV revenues in 2018 amounted to R93.3 billion (€1.25 billion), up 10.8% on a year earlier. This growth was similar to the 10.6% in 2017 and was down to such factors as a slight increase in the subscriber base, higher tariffs introduced by some operators and growth of such additional services as VOD and Multiroom.
The number of cable subscribers declined by 0.1% in 20178 (-0.7% in 2017), while the DTH subscriber total grew by 2% (3.8%) and that for IPTV by 10% (13.5%).
Cable TV was still the market leader in terms of subscriber numbers in 2018 (42%, compared to 39% for DTH and 19% for IPTV), as well as in revenue terms (43%, versus 32% for IPTV and 25% for DTH).
Tricolor TV had the most subscribers (28% of the total), followed by Rostelecom (23%), ER Telecom (8%), MTS (8%), Orion (7%) and other providers.
However, in terms of revenues Rostelecom was in top spot with 35%, followed by Tricolor TV (18%), ER Telecom (11%), MTS (8%) and others (28%).
