The 13th annual International Exhibition and Conference CSTB-2011 was held in Moscow from February 1 to 3. The exhibition is dedicated to modern TV and telecommunication technologies formats and trends, including broadband technologies, pay-TV, cable TV, satellite TV, mobile TV, IPTV, HDTV, content, satellite communications, operators’ services in broadband networks and wireless technologies.
More than 400 exhibitors from 27 countries took part in the exhibition, among them the largest pay-TV operators, leading world manufacturers of equipment for pay-TV networks, distributors, systems integrators, content producers and content providers, all offering their latest products and services to CSTB visitors.
CSTB’s annual International Conference gathered professionals from the field of television and telecommunications, as well as of the state institutions and business representatives.
The organizers note that pay-TV is one of the top five drivers of the Russian telecommunications industry by revenues from individual subscribers. The 2009 crisis disrupted the steady growth trend in this segment, but in contrast to growth in mobile phone sales, pay-TV maintained a net growth of 6%. Currently Russia has 2.9 TV sets connected to pay-TV for every 10 households. This is 14 times lower than the number of SIM-cards per 10 households, but more than the number of computers with broadband Internet access.
According to the organizers, CSTB-2012 will be held on 7-9 February 2012.
Source: ICT-Online
Expert commentary
Special to EWDN by Vladislav Shirobokov, broadcast media expert
As the Russian telecommunication and TV market is suffering from lack of satellite capacity, the most pressing news from the CSTB Conference comes from the regional and international satellite operators.
RSCC, the Russian national satellite provider, is planning to launch the Express-AM4 and MD2 satellites in August 2011. Market players are hoping that the launch will be successful as its entire C and Ku-band capacity has already been contracted.
GSS (Gazprom Space Systems), the only alternative to RSCC in Russia, confirmed plans for the launch of the Yamal 300K to the orbital position 90°E in 4Q 2011. The satellite will carry eight C-band 72 MHz and 18 Ku-band 36 MHz transponders.
International satellite providers are also paying attention to the Russian market. At the conference, Eutelsat presented its revolutionary KA-SAT program dedicated to the mass-market delivery of Tooway consumer broadband service. The new KA-SAT satellite, positioned at 9°E with a throughput of over 70 Gigabits per second, will be capable of serving over one million users who expect bandwidth and prices comparable to ADSL2 performance.
Intelsat expects to meet Russian market demand in Q2 2012 by adding a new IS-20 satellite with Russian coverage positioned at 68.5°E with C and Ku band capacities dedicated both to TV and telecommunications needs. It’s expected that the satelite will expand the success of the Intelsat 15 at 85.2°E as its capacity dedicated to the Russian market had been sold many months before its launch in November 2009.
All the above mentioned activity testifies to the fact that the mid-term perspective for the Russian satellite market will remain very attractive to satellite operators with both telecommunication and TV solutions.
• Vladislav Shirobokov, 28, is a telecom and broadcasting industry professional with 8 years of experience in CIS countries. Currently he works as a sales manager covering Eastern Europe and Russia at GlobeCast, the leading global provider of content management and worldwide transmission services for professional broadcast delivery. Over the past two years, he has supported the launch of satellite and cable distribution for more than twenty TV channels in these regions. Mr Shirobokov is a graduate of the faculty of International Relations at St Petersburg State University.
