Eastern Europe will lose nearly 5 million pay TV subscribers between 2020 and 2026 to take the total to 78.18 million.

Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “Most of the remaining analog cable TV subscribers are paying very little to receive very little. These homes are reluctant or unable to upgrade to more expensive digital pay TV.”

There were still 12.6 million analog cable subscribers by end-2020.

The number of digital pay TV subscribers will increase by nearly 6 million between 2020 and 2026 to 76 million.

Pay TV will be taken by 63% of the region’s TV homes in 2026; down from 66% in 2020. Digital pay TV penetration will climb from 56% to 62% over the same period.