Russian digital TV penetration to hit 98% by 2020

Digital TV penetration in Russia will reach 98% by 2020, up from just under 50% at the end of 2013, according to figures from Digital TV Research. 

The stats predict that nearly a third of homes in the country will be primary DTT households by 2020, up from just 7.5% at the end of 2013, with every platform having “ambitious plans to roll out digital services.”

Digital TV Research claims that digital pay TV penetration will climb from 36.0% in 2013 to 60.7% by 2020.

“Massive network construction (using the latest technology) is underway, which will irrevocably change the market. However, satellite TV is the boom market at present, with consumers attracted by low cost packages,” said the report.

Analogue terrestrial switch-off is expected to take place in Russia in 2018, though Digital TV Research says it expects analogue cable switch-off to take longer. It predicts that analogue cable TV penetration will fall from 37% in 2010 to 2% by 2020.

“Analogue cable subscribers include many homes which take the low-cost ‘social package’, which usually comprises retransmissions of the terrestrial channels. Although many of these homes will convert to DTT – or even pay digital platforms – some will hang on to the analog cable subscription for as long as possible,” said Digital TV Research.

It claims that pay TV revenues in Russia will increase by US$1.14 billion between 2010 and 2020 to reach US$2.02 billion. “ARPUs for cable TV have traditionally been low and this trend is continuing with the popularity of cheap DTH packages. However, DTH ARPUs are expected to increase, with cable and IPTV slowly falling.”