A new report from Screen Digest reveals that total pay TV penetration will increase rapidly in Central and Eastern European countries, from 40% at the end of 2007 to 60% by 2012 with a total of 63 million homes subscribing to pay TV services.
The impressive growth will be driven by a strong pay TV market in Russia which will account for 28m of the region’s pay TV subscribers by 2012.
Andrew Katolo, Screen Digest research analyst, said “The opportunities for investors, particularly in satellite pay TV platforms, are improving rapidly. However, aggressive pricing poses challenges for the future and consolidation, in both the cable and satellite markets, is likely.”
The Eastern European pay TV market is dominated by cable, which accounts for 80% of all pay TV homes with almost one third of the region’s homes taking cable services.
Whilst the mature cable subscriber base is not growing as fast as the newer satellite platforms, average revenue per user continues to rise, increasing by 10% on average in 2007. Screen Digest predicts that cable penetration will increase to 40% of homes in 2012 from 32% at the end of 2007. Over the next five years, the number of digital cable subscribers will have increased from its present two per cent to 18% of TV homes.
Katolo added: “Whilst Western European Pay TV markets are almost at saturation point, there is still huge potential for growth in the Eastern European markets and Russia especially. Growth comes as more subscribers are attracted to the satellite platform and new channels are launched to meet demand.”
Analysys Mason recently published research which forecast that the increasing deployment of IPTV services will see the pay-TV market in Western Europe enjoy a modest rate of growth (see IPTV To Drive Take-Up Of Pay TV In Western Europe).
According to the report, Pay TV in Western Europe: market sizings and forecasts 2005-2013, the number of households subscribing to pay-TV services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 3.2% from 90.6 million in 2007 to 109.2 million by the end of 2013.
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