ScreenLovers has published a forecast about the pay-TV market in Poland. The main trends expected for 2017 are a decline in the price paid per viewer by operators and stagnation in the advertising market.

Still approximately 2/3 of Polish households have access to pay-TV, and the threat of cord-cutting is not that visible. Cable TV and digital platforms still have a substantial impact on the market.

ScreenLovers decided to fill in the gap of not a having a survey made with pay-TV executives and carried out its first survey with the heads of distribution, working on the TV market.

The main threat is that the price paid for TV stations will fall, and the market will not compensate for the decline in advertising. As much as 57% of respondents claim that the CPS (cost per subscriber) will drop. Gone are the golden days when the bulk of the revenue of channels was based on subscriptions. As far as the ad market is concerned – most experts expect zero change, with 28% hoping for a 0-5% growth and 28% fearing a drop of 0 to -5%.

The second major trend is that pay-TV operators will lose clients. According to experts; the increased popularity of terrestrial TV and further (slow) cord-cutting is unavoidable.

As many as 47%of respondents said that pay TV will be losing to terrestrial television. 37% believed in that the status-quo will be maintained. Only 17% of respondents expected an increase in the number of subscribers to pay-TV.

When asked which cable and satellite operators can take advantage (at the expense of competition) of the situation Cyfrowy Polsat won the poll with 43% of the respondents. Among cable networks – UPC is expected to strengthen its position.