Russia’s longest established DTH platform NTV-Plus is to start offering reception equipment free of charge to some of its subscribers in order to increase take-up of the service.
According to Russian business daily Vedomosti, as part of a three-month offer starting in November, new customers who opt for pay-per-view channels will have the cost of purchasing and connecting reception equipment included in the fee.
It is expected this will increase the subscriber total by more than 40,000 and if considered successful could be extended to existing subscribers who, when opting for HD channels, are then offered a HD PVR free of charge.
NTV-Plus was launched in 1996 and has seen its subscriber total plateau at around 650,000, or a tenth of the paying customer total of Tricolor TV, Russia’s leading DTH platform.
By providing its reception equipment for free it will be following in the footsteps of a number of West European DTH platforms.
