September 06, 2011
After closing its satellite TV platform Poverkhnost+ last year, investment group ISTIL is planning to push ahead with a new Ukranian satellite offer branded Xtra TV later this month. This will be followed a month later by the launch of yet another new satellite platform called Lybid TV which will work with Russian set top box vendor General Satellite as its technical partner. Both players plan to target the low budget end of the market with pre-paid offers. Xtra TV, which will launch on Spacecom's AMOS 3, will broadcast about 40 channels in five packages costing UAH29 ($3.50) each. Lybid TV wants to launch with 50-60 channels in its line-up in packages priced UAH24-40 ($3.00-5.00). Lybid expects to gain 50,000-100,000 subscribers in one year.
Currently there are three satellite TV providers in Ukraine: NTV+ Ukraine, Visat, and MyTV. The fourth player, Poverkhnost+, got into financial problems last year and had to stop broadcasting. Planned reactivation of the project never materialised. Despite the huge potential of the Ukraine's pay TV market (multichannel penetration just 25 per cent of homes in mid 2011), only Viasat has returned recent growth, thanks to its attractive promotions. Viasat has added about 90,000 subscribers after two years. MyTV tried to attract subscribers with a high-tech focused offer, but has had limited success(only about 1,000 subscribers after one year). Since the 2009 financial crisis, price remains the major driver of pay TV market growth in Ukraine. This has also impacted the up-market focused NTV+. Also piracy has a very negative impact on Ukraine's pay TV market growth.
Nevertheless, examples from other Eastern European countries show that low-end platforms with active marketing and distribution networks may grow very fast (Digi TV in Romania, Croatia and Serbia, TriColor in Russia, SkyLink in Czech and Slovak Republics). With the economic outlook improving, Ukraine may well become another CEE market with expanding satellite platforms. Although growth may be reduced by competition from other market players, primarily DTT which is due to be launched by the end of 2011 by licence holder Zeonbud. The DTT platform will offer up to 28 free to air channels, some possibly in HD, giving it the potential to become a real threat to pay TV players.
