According to the reported research data of Telecom Daily, Orion Express operator providing satellite TV services took fourth place in the number of pay TV subscribers in the first quarter of this year, as Vedomosti inform. It left slightly behind ER-Telecom operator with 2.65 million subscribers.
Among the leading satellite operators, apart from Orion Express, there is also the National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV brand), which took the palm in the number of subscribers of nearly 11 million. During the first quarter of this year that operator connected 95 thousand subscribers, and Orion Express just 75 thousand.
ER-Telecom, Rostelecom and MTS operators are the wired ones. The leader among them in subscriber base’s growth became Rostelecom, increasing the number of its subscribers by 110 thousand, and the other two companies’s result is 30 thousand customers.
Denis Kuskov, CEO of Telecom Daily Information and Analytic Agency, believes that such Rostelecom customers’ increasing is due to transfering them to GPON fiber-optic networks. Therefore the satellite TV operators didn’t manage to connect a larger number of households when compared with the fixed ones. But their market has been already restarted due to the networks’ coverage of settlements, so they’re able to grow only by connecting other providers’ subscribers. At the same time the satellite operators don’t need to spend extra funds for installing new networks, as they cover near the whole country. The main expense item for them is marketing, according to Denis Kuskov.
Kirill Makhnovskiy, CEO of Orion Express operator, agrees with this opinion and points out that the discounts and promotions along with the coverage of areas facilitated the subscribers number’s increasing. Makhnovskiy has also an opinion that a wired operator of cable TV and Internet is constantly incurring costs for every new subscriber’s connecting. And a satellite operator doesn’t experience such a problem, as when managing the recoupment of spent funds at the expense of just connected subscribers, the further costs are not required, but those for the content.
Andrey Semerikov, CEO of ER-Telecom Holding, believes that the market of wired Internet and Television has reduced its growth rates indeed, and the satellite operators earn mainly due to low prices and the equipment sales.
Dmitry Solodovnikov, spokesman for MTS, also agrees with the view that the cable TV has slightly reduced its growth rates. His company is more focused, however, on increasing ARPU from its subscribers.
