With my Viasat subscription ending soon, I thought I'd try a different one. I've been to-ing and fro-ing between Viasat Ukraine and Xtra TV. Both are available through either eBay sellers or some Ukrainian satellite shops and both offer more or less the same set of channels.
The biggest caveat for me is that I cannot receive Nordic Beam on 9E (nor Italian) where most of Xtra TV channels reside. However, most, though not all, channels are replicated on 13E, 5E and 4W(!) Given that Xtra TV also offers decoding via a Verimatrix CI+ CAM, I thought it would make sense to not add yet another box under my TV.
The encryption is, as mentioned, Verimatrix, though they are tunnelling it via Betacrypt - presumably for CAMs only (there is also a separate receiver available). I bought it from Ukrainian agsat shop for £13(!) + about the same for postage. To activate the CAM, you need a Ukrainian phone number (I use a virtual SIM with SMS capability) and some loose change on your credit card.
Loose change - the packages are very cheap. An almost full package with no sports channels costs 169 Hryvnias ~ £4.70 per month. Sports channels take this up to just over 200 Hryvnias, which is still very cheap.
Verimatrix encryption is ...annoying. It has clearly been designed to work with its own little box, rather than a CI+ CAM, which expects to be receiving an Xtra TV signal at all times. This is because the CAM is constantly updated with entitlements/keys. Even if you don't watch it for about 5 minutes and tune into Xtra TV channel, you get a message saying that you are not worthy. Though it only takes about 10 seconds to update that and for picture to clear. Still annoying.
Channel line up is you usual mix of movie channels, docs, kids etc. Most channels offer two sound tracks - original and either Ukrainian or Russian. HD quality is very good, though a little 'soft' (a bit like BBC HD). SD quality is average - not as good as it can be, like the French or German SD channels but not as bad as some of the Freesat ones. And definitely not as bad as ITV SD on Freeview!