Russia’s largest telecoms are launching a new multiscreen service later this year, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported last week. The project is expected to enable users to access their favorite TV channels from a TV set, a desktop PC or a mobile gadget.
The leader in this race for broader markets is Rostelecom, which will launch a multiscreen broadcast next month with a reported 180 licensed TV channels on the menu. The national telecom operator is to be followed in the third and fourth quarters by Megafon, MTS and Vimpelcom, Russia’s Big Three of mobile operators, offering their clients between 50 and 100-plus licensed channels.
Monthly fees will be around 250 rubles (approximately $8) per package. The operators’ existing customers will enjoy the full three-screen service, while others will only be able to access a package from a desktop computer or a mobile device.
The service is a way of expanding the audiences for pay channels in a country that has seen its tablet and smartphone market mushroom over the past few years, according to Mikhail Silin, a vice-president of Russia’s Cable Television Association. Russians do not want to be limited to a TV set any more; added Telecomdaily; as of April 1 up to nine million Russian pay TV subscribers watched television on PCs and mobile gadgets.
The mobile operators are cautiously optimistic about their clients subscribing to three-screen TV. In an exchange with Vedomosti, Vitaly Starodubov of Megafon’s Megalabs subsidiary expressed hope that for his company the payback period for the multiscreen project would not be more than three years.
