Viewing premium TV channels just got easier for Ukraine’s more than three million free-to-air satellite TV households.
The Xtra TV brand this month launched an easy-to-access pre-paid card system requiring no lock-in contracts or additional equipment purchases.
Satellite TV users will now be able to augment their viewing with pre-paid cards that offer premium channels not offered through free-to-air platforms.
Xtra TV belongs to the ISTIL Group of companies, owned by United Kingdom citizen Mohammad Zahoor, who also owns the Kyiv Post.
“The cards are compatible with most decoders on the market so all a viewer has to do is insert the card into the decoder’s slot and start watching,” said Jim Phillipoff, ISTIL Group’s media and telecom director who is leading the $50 million project.
Xtra TV offers five different thematic cards ranging from films, sports and universal, to knowledge and children’s packages that total 39 channels. Each package has, on average, eight channels.
Jim Phillipoff, media and telecom director of the ISTIL Group, talks about the launch of a pre-paid card system by Xtra TV during a Nov. 4 news conference. The ISTIL Group also owns the Kyiv Post, among other media, real estate and manufacturing assets. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
The start-up cost is Hr 99 ($12) for the access card good for 30 calendar days that has all the channels. Prices for one card after that will start at Hr 29 (below $4) while the full package of channels will run Hr 89 ($11).
“The market is ready but the question is how much people are ready to pay and for which channels … but this move puts them into the top 10 providers,” GfK’s senior market researcher Tetyana Ilyashenko said in July.
Phillipoff said much market research was conducted. He noted that the company found a “right price” point.
The channels will be available on Russian-language audio tracks and, when available, in English such as National Geographic, Discovery, Eurosport, Animal Planet as well as others.
“Customers are free to choose and pay for each package as they wish,” Phillipoff said.
Phillipoff said the cards are available nationwide through a network of 31 large distributors and 700 dealer satellite installers at radio markets.
He said 2,000 more dealers are interested in obtaining certification from the company to sell the cards.
Monthly card payments can be made at state-owned Oshchad Bank branches – the largest bank branch network in the country with some 6,000 – as well as through Ukrposhta outlets.
Users can also order cards by dialing 759 toll-free that will be delivered to the nearest post office where they can be subsequently purchased.
Less than 3 percent of satellite households, or 93,000 households, pay for satellite TV as of June, according to GfK Ukraine, a leading market researcher. The remaining 3 million satellite households use free-to-air platforms.
However, according to GfK Ukraine, each month 46,000 new satellite users enter the market.
IIlyashenko said the fastest growth of satellite TV households are located in rural areas where 50 percent of existing satellite TV users are located and where terrestrial TV signals are weak with no cable TV available.
NTV+ Ukraine and VisionTV, known under the Viasat brand, are currently the two pay satellite TV companies in Ukraine’s market.
This is ISTIL Group’s second foray onto the satellite TV market. Its first experiment ended in disappointment last year when the company wrote off Zahoor’s $58 million investment into the Poverkhnost digital TV project.
Phillipoff cited “corporate culture problems” with partners for the failed project, saying that it “wasn’t the right formula.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
