The number of homes receiving pay-TV services in Russia rose by nearly 2 million in 2010, according to a study produced by the local company DISCOVERY Research Group.

The findings of the study, published by AKTR and RBK, focus on the main pay-TV market segments and tend to contradict those of studies by other companies, among them iKS Consulting and J’son & Partners Consulting.

They say that the number of pay-TV homes in Russia at the end of 2010 stood at 16.3 million, up from 14.5 million a year earlier.

Cable accounted for 67% of the market, equivalent to around 10 million homes, followed by satellite with 31% (around 6 million homes).

The number of IPTV subscribers meanwhile stood at around 500,000. Russia’s pay-TV market is dominated by six companies – Tricolor TV, Comstar-UTS, ER-Telecom, Multiregion (now part of MTS), NTV-Plus and Svyazinvest – which between them account for 65-70% of subscribers.