Eastern Europe pay-TV to follow downward trajectory to 2027
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 21 April 2022
Severely affected by economic sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, the number of pay-TV subscribers will fall in 18 of the Eastern European region’s 22 countries between 2021 and 2027 says a study from Digital TV Research.

TRT World Cup Russia 19 June 2018The Eastern Europe Pay TV Forecasts report calculated that the region’s pay-TV market will total 74 million subscribers in 2027, down by 8 million on the peak year of 2018 which included 17 million analogue cable subscribers. The latter will drop to zero by 2027 and the number of digital pay-TV subscribers by then will increase by 9 million.

The market total will drop by 4 million in 2022 alone, mainly due to Ukraine losing all of its 2.6 million subscribers. Russia will account for half of the region’s pay-TV subscribers in 2027. However, Russia is set to lose 5 million pay-TV subscribers between 2021 and 2027 partly as sanctions worsen the economic situation and due to some analogue cable homes converting to FTA DTT.

Digital TV Research in cautioned in the Eastern Europe Pay TV Forecasts report Eastern Europe Pay TV Forecasts report that sanctions on Russia are expected to continue for some time, with Western companies reluctant to re-enter the Russian market. Even though Russia is not as dependent on Western content as many other European countries, sanctions will result in economic hardship that will adversely affect Russian household spend, no matter how relatively cheap such subscriptions are in the market .