Eastern Europe to add 20MN SVOD subs by 2027
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 25 April 2022
Just days after forecasting tough times for the region’s pay-TV arena, Digital TV Research is predicting much better fortune for Eastern Europe’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) sector, rising from 23 million at the end of 2021 to 43 million by 2027.
SKyshowtime 18Aug2021
The analysis, the Eastern Europe OTT TV & Video Forecasts report, said the region will benefit from rollouts by Disney+, SkyShowtime and HBO Max. Poland is set to will become SVOD market leader in 2026 despite having a much lower population than Russia. Russia and Poland are forecast to account for just under two-thirds (64%) of the region’s SVOD subscribers by 2027, down from 79% in 2021 as other countries grow faster.

In terms of individual platforms, Netflix is predicted to continue to lead the Eastern European SVOD sector drawing 8.18 million subscribers by 2027, up from 5.82 million at end-2021. Disney+ will boast 4.689 million subscribers by 2027 despite starting as recently as June 2021. Comcast/ViacomCBS joint venture SkyShowtime is predicted to have rapid growth, leaping from 419,000 subs at the ewnd of 2022 to 2.941 million by the end of 2027.

“HBO Max launched in March, with 3.11 million paying subscribers expected by 2027. Many more homes continue to receive HBO online as part of their pay TV subscription.” said Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research commenting on the Eastern Europe OTT TV & Video Forecasts report. “Western SVOD platforms withdrew from Russia and are unlikely to return before 2027. These platforms only made a limited impact in Russia, so the subscriber losses are not that great.”