Russian pay TV penetration to exceed 50%

Russian analyst group iKS-Consulting has said that pay TV penetration in Russia will exceed 50% in 2012, with the market generating revenue of RUB40 billion (€960 million), up 20% year-on-year. The overall Russian pay TV base is expected to exceed 26 million users.

iKS named Tricolor as the leading pay TV company, with 7.6 million customers, followed by Rostelecom with 5.45 million and MTS with 2.78 million.

ER-Telecom connected over half a million new cable customers last year. The number of subscribers increased by 40% during the course of the year, taking its total to 1.73 million, which was six times higher than the average growth rate for the country’s cable TV sector, according to the company.

Akado was fifth placed in the Russian market with 1.08 million subscribers.

iKS predicted that pay TV would reach 35 million subscribers by 2015.