The analyst of the Information Technology Department of Moscow informs that today the Russian satellite TV is enjoyed by 50% of all subscribers. These are they who have faced a notable rising cost of services for the past six months.
– There is observed a steady growth in demand for packages with HD-channels, so the price of services is also increasing rapidly, as Alexei Chukarin, the Head of the analytical unit of ITD, affirms the situation in the digital TV market.
According to his official estimates, over the past six months, the cost of services has increased by 120 percent. However, there was no drop of demand and no redistribution of popularity in the market. The reverse process takes place, i.e the more the price increases, the more connection applications come from potential users of the service.
At the end of the II quarter of 2015 there were about 2.2 million digital TV subscribers in Moscow. During the summer, this figure is expected to increase by one third, according to the forecasts of the providers of such services. The basic digital TV package comprises 105 channels at average, most of which are the thematic ones. The HD-channels in these offers occupy about 10%. The basic packages are represented completely by the first multiplex channels within the list of mandatory nationwide public TV and Radio channels of digital TV, approved at the federal level in 2009.
Alexei Chukarin marks the further growth in price of all digital TV services in the latter half of 2015.
– Starting this year, the most price increase was experienced by the satellite TV, i.e near by 120%. This is mainly due to the increased demand for the service, as well as the increased costs of operators for purchasing content because of weakening rouble. In the IPTV segment the rise of tariffs over the same period amounted to a total of less than by 1.5%, and in the cable TV segment by 9%, as Chukarin clarifies.
By the way, the authors of the study predict a slowdown in the pay-TV market, as the Moscow residents more than often prefer online cinemas and other personalized content. The winners will be the operators providing subscribers with additional services such as Video on demand (VOD) and online movies. Even more negative scenario is expected for mobile TV, which still actually occupies just a narrow market segment, as the technology goes on being displaced by Internet TV services available on mobile devices, according to the analysts.
