Slow DTV in E. Europe Good News for Pay TV

According to a new report from Digital TV Research, the number of digital broadcast homes for 15 forecast countries in Eastern Europe will exceed the analog total for the first time, but many rollouts have been delayed, which is good news for the pay TV sector.Report author Simon Murray said: "It is good news for pay TV operators that many Eastern European countries have been slow to implement analog terrestrial switchover. This favors pay TV operators as it gives them more time to convert homes to their packages before FTA DTT becomes established. Poland and Romania are prime examples of this."Pay TV is expected to be taken by 61% of the region's TV homes in 2017, up from 47% at end-2011 -- or up by 18 million to 71 million. Pay TV revenues in Eastern Europe are expected to be 35% higher in 2017 ($7.8 billion) than in 2012 ($5.8 billion).