PeerTV optimistic on OTT revenues growth in Eastern Europe
A report published by Digital TV Research is forecasting pay TV revenues in Eastern Europe will be 45
per cent higher in 2020 ($7,269 million) than in 2010 ($5,029 million). However, the fifth edition of
the Digital TV Eastern Europe Forecasts report states that increase will only be 17 per cent between
2014 and 2020, although this is still an increase of $1 billion. This market optimism is echoed by
PeerTV, manufacturers of the class leading Android powered H265 OTT set top box offering OTT
content providers proven high efficiency video coding (HEVC) technology and DVB-T2 connectivity.
Digital pay TV revenues will increase by $4 billion between 2010 and 2020 to $7 billion. They will
increase by 47 per cent (or $2.2 billion) between 2014 and 2020. Digital cable revenues will more
than double between 2014 and 2020, with IPTV up by 56 per cent and pay DTT up by 53 per cent.
However, satellite TV revenues (the main earner) will only grow by 17 per cent over the same
period.
The number of digital pay TV subscribers will increase from 25.8 million (20.7 per cent of TV
households) in 2010 to 51 million (40 per cent) in 2014 and onto 76.7 million (59.4 per cent) by 2020.
Avi Vermus, CEO of PeerTV, said, “We have seen a significant increase in interest amongst clients
serving the Russian and Polish expatriate communities in particular and have recently signed new
equipment supply deals with Kartina and Polsky.TV. Our Android based set top box has proved itself
popular with both end users and TV service content providers who are now successfully monetizing
the TV viewing habits of expatriate communities around the world by using the internet to reach an
audience known to be hungry for on demand ethnic TV content.”
Total cable subscriptions will fall by 8.9 million between 2010 and 2020. Digital cable subscribers will
grow from 4.6 million to 27.6 million, but analogue subs will fall from 36.8 million to 4.9 million over
the same period. Overall cable penetration will reach a quarter of TV households by 2020, down
from a third in 2010.
Cable TV revenues will hardly grow between 2014 and 2020, despite more homes taking the more
expensive digital packages. Digital cable TV revenues will more than double to $2.7 billion, with
analogue cable TV falling from $1.5 billion to $0.3 billion.
Pay TV will be taken by 63.2 per cent of the region’s TV homes in 2020, up from 50.1 per cent at end-
2010, but only up from 60.9 per cent at end-2014. This converts to 19.0 million more payTV
subscribers between 2010 and 2020, with Russia supplying about 12.0 million of this total. Pay TV
penetration in 2020 will range from 89 per cent in Estonia to only 25 per cent in the Ukraine.
Russia will contribute $2.29 billion (31 per cent) to the pay TV revenues in 2020 – overtaking Poland
in 2015. Russia will be responsible for nearly two-thirds of the region’s $1 billion additional pay TV
revenues between 2014 and 2020.
At the other end of the scale, Estonia and Slovenia will experience falling pay TV revenues between
2014 and 2020. Furthermore, Bosnia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia will
grow by less than 5 per cent.