Russia to drive pay TV growth in Eastern Europe

May 8, 2008 – Total pay TV penetration is to increase rapidly in Eastern Europe from 40% at the end of last year to 60% by 2012 and reach a total of 63mn homes subscribing to pay TV in the region, driven by strong growth in cable and satellite and a strong market in Russia, according to analyst firm Screen Digest.

The Eastern European pay TV market is dominated by cable, according to the study, accounting for 80% of all pay TV homes in the region and with almost a third of all households in the region receiving cable services.  Screen Digest predicts that cable penetration will increase to 40% by 2012.

Satellite TV by contrast is found to be a small market, with only 8% of homes in the CEE region currently receiving the service, and the study projects that this will double to 16% by 2012.

IPTV is found to be a smaller market still, and is described as a “nascent” platform in the region – it is predicted to take off in 2009, and by 2012 less than 3% of homes will be using IPTV as their primary TV reception platform.

Across all platforms, the total number of pay TV subscribers in Eastern Europe increased 18% last year, with the region recording its highest ever annual growth.