Eastern European pay TV faces revenue/subscriber decline, says DTVR

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Pay TV revenues in Eastern Europe will peak at $6.95 billion in 2019 – before slipping gradually to $6.59 billion by 2024, according to new research from Digital TV Research (Eastern Europe Pay TV Forecasts, April 2019).

During this time, analogue cable revenues will drop by $844 million to virtually nothing (just $33 million), while digital PayTV revenues will increase by $502 million to $6.56 billion.

Assessing the data, Simon Murray, DTVR principal analyst said: “Tough times continue in Eastern Europe, with poor job prospects forcing many to seek work abroad. This migration married with low birth rates mean that the number of TV households will fall by 2.5 million in 18 countries between 2018 and 2024.”

Russia will account for half of the region’s pay TV subscribers in 2024. However, Russia will lose 2.88 million pay TV subscribers between 2018 and 2024. Murray said: “The number of PayTV subscribers in Eastern Europe will decline from 82.33m at end-2018 to 78.64m in 2024. Not great news but better than the US situation.” One positive is that virtually all of this total (78 million) will be digital Pay TV subscribers.