According to Digital TV Research, eastern Europe will have 18.19 million paying OTT subscription VOD (SVOD) subscribers (for TV episodes and movies - excluding sports, for example) across 18 countries by 2021, up from 3.33 million at end-2015 and the 5.58 million expected by end-2016 - almost sextupling between 2015 and 2021.
The research house estimates that Russia accounted for 44% of the region's SVOD subs in 2016, with that proportion expected to slowly grow to half the total by 2021. From the 12.61 million SVOD additions between 2016 and 2021, Russia is expected to supply 6.69 million.
By 2021, the top five SVOD platforms in eastern Europe are expected to account for half of the region's SVOD subscribers. Netflix (3.50 million subs) is expected to be the leader, followed by Russia's Ivi (2.43 million), Megogo (1.32 million in Russia and the Ukraine), Russia's Okko (1.08 million) and Poland's Ipla (0.90 million).