HD takes off in Russia

HD services are growing in popularity in Russia, with the DTH platform Tricolor TV accounting for two in three subscribers, Broadband TV News reports.

Quoting Anastasia Sokolovskaya, the Tricolour’s press secretary, Vedomosti reports that Tricolor TV now has one million customers to the HD service it launched only last summer.

It also quotes research by IHS Screen Digest that says there were 1.46 million Russian homes receiving HD services at the end of December 2012, compared to only 310,000 a year earlier.

The figure is predicted to rise to 4.08 million by the end of this year and 7.6 million by the end of 2014.

This will make Russia the biggest HD market in CEE and third largest in Europe as a whole in less than two years’ time.