Volia anticipates tough 2010

Leading Ukrainian cable operator Volia expects tough market conditions to continue this year, with inflation of at least 12% forcing it to increase subscription rates.

CEO Sergey Boyko said he expected little subscriber growth overall, leading to tougher competition between service providers. However, he said he expected grey-market providers to disappear as content owners took additional steps to combat piracy.
Volia had 1.7 million subscribers at the end of last year, including over 380,000 broadband internet customers, with a network that passed 2.5 million homes.

ARPU for Volia’s internet service in 2009 was UAH50-60 (€6-7), with ARPU for TV customers averaging UAH24-30.Volia said its EBITDA margin for the year was 40%.

This year, the company expects to fully digitise its network in Kyiv and to continue upgrading out-of-date infrastructure in the provinces. Digital TV services are currently also available in Kharkiv, Vinnitsa, Lviv, Poltava, Sevastopol and Simferopol.