The largest Russian Pay TV operator Tricolor TV has summarised its activities in 2015. The provider’s annual receipts that grew from year to year have increased for more than 40%, and the number of subscribers having access to high-definition television has increased for 45%. Opening of the corporate retail chain and launch of the first UHDTV channel package in the Russian Federation became the main events of the year.

Tricolor TV has implemented the plan for new connections in 2015 and has retained high growth rates. The number of the subscribers in the operator’s database has reached 11.8 million, and this exceeds the results of 2014 by 881 thousand subscriber homes. Moreover, the number of the subscribers having access to high-definition television (HDTV) has increased by 45%. The optimal content offer in the pay TV market and transparent pricing policy has ensured the attractiveness of Tricolor TV for the Russians. Let us remind you that in the beginning of 2015 the operator has unified its main service and included own produced movie channels, radio channels, music and sports TV channels available earlier by separate subscription into the new package Edinyi.

The growth of financial indicators is even more impressive. Annual receipts of Tricolor TV have increased by 42.7% in comparison with 2014: from 10.4 billion RUB to 14.85 billion RUB. The operator has increased its annual ARPU from 998 RUB in 2014 to 1315 RUB in 2015. The growth is stimulated by mass implementation of HD services of Tricolor TV and dual-screen TV viewing services within the same subscription. Moreover, users keep up a sustainable interest in additional packages of the operator.

Tricolor TV is the absolute leader in high-definition television development in the Russian Federation and Europe (as of December 2015, in accordance with the information of the international analytics company IHS Technology, Sky UK has 5 986 million subscribers only). According to the results of 2015, more than 6.6 million subscribers have the access to the HDTV channels of the operator (according to the results of 2014, 4.55 million subscribers had such access). The share of HD subscribers in the total amount of subscribers of Tricolor TV has increased from 41.7% to 55.9% within the year.

Furthermore, figures for actual HDTV viewing exceed the statistical data for the subscriptions. HDTV users are active consumers of multi-screen services: ca. 30% of new connections in the central part of the Russian Federation and up to 50% of the ones in the Siberian Federal District included the connections to the service Edinyi Multi enabling the access to watching TV programmes on two TV sets.

In 2015, the operator continued to implement the program of exchange of the MPEG-2 equipment for the satellite receivers giving the possibility to watch high-definition TV programs; this program is being implemented with strategic partners of the operator.
More than 30 new SD TV channels and ca. 10 HDTV channels were added to the operator’s broadcast network within the last year, including Discovery Channel HD, CNN, Eurosport HD, TLC HD, Match TV HD, KHL HD, Jyvaya Planeta, Ryjyi (TV channel for children with the translation into sign language).

The operator was the first in the Russian Federation starting to broadcast the ULTRA HDTV channel package in November. In accordance with the information as of 31.12.2015, the main service of Tricolor TV included 30 HDTV channels, 165 SD TV channels, 35 radio channels and 2 ULTRA HDTV channels.

In August 2015, the own federal retail chain of Tricolor TV was launched in almost a hundred cities and towns of the country. In December 2015, the chain included already 202 Sales and Maintenance Centers and corporate sales showrooms. The operator plans to continue developing its chain in 2016.

Moreover, Tricolor TV actively implements projects aimed at interaction with various audiences (b2b, b2c). In spring, the corporate blog of Tricolor TV Press Club was presented; this blog is a media center giving the possibility to aggregate all network information about the company. And in November the operator launched the information and entertainment website based on the online magazine Tricolor TV Magazine tricolortvmag.ru which is aimed at the provision of the maximum amount of information about digital television to all Russian TV viewers.

Before New Year holidays, the operator has sent out the promotional offer to its subscribers No More Limits to Dreams. The winner got the main prize: the car Ravon Matiz and reimbursement of taxes paid in connection with this main prize.

СEO of Tricolor TV Alexey Kholodov: The last year was not easy for the Russian market. Nevertheless, Tricolor TV has shown the growth of the income and the database of its subscribers. The operator is considered a real friend by the Russians within many years. We see and properly estimate this confidence and try to justify it through implementing new services, enhancing TV viewing and launching new interesting TV channels.

Categories: Press Releases, Results