Digital pay TV tipped to boom in Eastern Europe

Digital pay TV services are set to boom in Eastern Europe, according to a new report.

Some 58.2% of TV households in Eastern Europe will subscribe to digital pay TV services by 2020, up from 36.6% in 2013, the report from Digital TV Research suggests.

The study claims that digital pay TV will “soar” in the region as Eastern Europe moves out of recession, with the overall number of digital TV homes also expected to triple between 2010 and 2020.

According to the research, the number of digital pay TV subscribers in Eastern Europe will climb from 26.1 million in 2010 to 45 million in 2013 and 73.6 million by 2020.

This will drive up pay TV revenues from US$4.94 billion in 2010 to US$7.305 billion in 2020, with digital cable and IPTV revenues tipped to more than double between 2013 and 2020 while satellite TV revenues grow by 22%.

Russia will be responsible for nearly half of the region’s additional US$1.1 billion in pay TV revenues between 2013 and 2020, and will contribute US$2.02 billion, or 28%, of pay TV revenues in 2020 – overtaking Poland in 2015, says the research.

Including non-pay TV customers, Digital TV Research claims that the number of digital TV homes in Eastern Europe will increase from 41.0 million to 124.7 million between 2010 and 2020.

Overall digital TV penetration among TV households in the region was 33% in 2010, crossed 50% in 2012, and is tipped to reach 66% by the end of this year and 98.5% by the end of 2020.

“The number of analogue terrestrial TV households halved between 2010 and 2013; leaving 23.2 million. Only 11.9 million DTT homes were added, therefore the digital pay TV platforms benefitted from the analog terrestrial homes converting to digital,” said the report.

Simon Murray (pictured), a former principal media analyst at TBI parent Informa Telecoms and Media, launched TV intelligence specialist Digital TV Europe in 2011.