This was revealed by Onno Zonneweld, Head of the SES Astra AB Representative Office in Ukraine and the CIS, while presenting the results of the SES Satellite Monitor study for 2019. The study was conducted before the encoding of Ukrainian channels on the satellite.
Satellite is the leader in types of television signal reception in the Ukrainian market: 34% of television households (4.5 million DTH households) use it. This trend has not changed since 2018. The share of cable TV users has decreased from 32% to 29% over the past year, while digital terrestrial TV has increased from 31% to 33% (due to the shutdown of analog terrestrial television). The share of IPTV households has not changed since 2018 and remains at 4%.
«Satellite continues to grow. I think there will be a slight decline after encoding. But people will not stop watching satellite, no one has taken their dishes off the roofs of houses. Cable is losing ground somewhat. But this year we will see an increase in terrestrial broadcasting. IPTV remains at 4%, and is unlikely to continue to grow», - noted Mr. Zonneweld.
Overall, according to the results of the study from 2019, satellite television is present in almost 40% of European television households and continues to grow. «20 million households have switched to satellite. Satellite is growing, cable is quite stable, IPTV is growing, but not as rapidly as we thought», - said Mr. Zonneweld.
Despite the fact that OTT is gaining momentum, it is only an addition to linear television, SES notes. People are not abandoning linear television. The pay TV market in Europe is stable despite various streaming services. But the situation in the US is different.
At the same time, in Ukraine, according to SES, 200 thousand households have abandoned linear television. «This is a lot, people are switching to OTT», - emphasized Mr. Zonneweld.
According to SES, from 2013 to 2018, the greatest growth was shown by satellite broadcasting and IPTV.