Russian pay TV subscribers reached 37.6 million at end-2014

MOSCOW — J’son & Partners Consulting has released results for the Russian pay-TV market at the end of 2014 with forecasts out to 2019.

The Russian pay-TV market was the largest in Europe at the end of 2014 with 37.6 million households receiving cable, satellite or IPTV. J’son & Partners expects the pay TV subscriber base in Russia to continue to grow, reaching 45.2 million households by 2019. Penetration of pay-TV services will then be 81%.

Pay TV subscribers (millions)

               2012A  2013A  2014A  2015E  2016F  2017F  2018F  2019F
               -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
IPTV             2.5    3.7    4.7    5.6    6.3    7.0    7.4    7.8
Cable TV        18.3   18.3   18.3   18.5   18.7   18.8   18.9   18.9
Satellite TV    11.1   13.1   14.5   15.9   16.8   17.5   18.0   18.5

TOTAL           31.9   35.1   37.6   40.0   41.9   43.3   44.3   45.2

A – actual, E – estimates, F – forecast
Source: J’son & Partners Consulting

The largest players in 2014 were Tricolor TV (with a market share of 29%), Rostelecom (21%), MTS (7%), ER-Telecom (7%) and Orion-Express (7%).

Pay TV market share by operator

                2013   2014
               -----  -----
Tricolor TV    28.8%  29.1%
Rostelecom     21.4%  21.1%
MTS             7.4%   7.5%
ER-Telecom      7.1%   7.0%
Orion-Express   5.6%   6.9%
Others         29.7%  28.5%

Source: J’son & Partners Consulting

At the end of 2014 the share of subscriptions taken by cable TV for the first time in recent history fell below 50%, down 2.6 percentage points over the year. The total for the alternative technologies of satellite and IPTV grew during the year to finish at 51.2%.

Pay TV market share by technology

                2013   2014
               -----  -----
Cable TV       51.4%  48.8%
Satellite TV   37.3%  38.7%
IPTV           11.3%  12.5%

Source: J’son & Partners Consulting