There is a general trend among cable operators globally that does not include them getting more customers, and most cable operators have experienced customers losses during the past year or so, but part of this is because the way cable is so focussed on the steps towards a triple play.
So it should be not too much of a surprise that Screen Digest’s review of cable operators in Europe shows that industry revenues are up, rising 5.4% to €18.8 billion during 2008 with €17.4 billion generated within the European Union. Screen Digest reached this conclusion in a report sponsored by trade body Cable Europe.
By the end of 2008, ARPU across the European Union in cable was €21.54, compared to €20.79 a year earlier and €21.90 in Europe as a whole. Screen Digest says there remains a contrast between Western and Eastern Europe in with the West averaging €24 ARPU compared to €14.14 in the East.
The report took in 67.5 million cable homes in the EU and 71.6 million in Europe with digital cable still very low at 29% but far higher than a year earlier, at 18 million. Much of the past five years in European cable has been about private equity groups buying out existing shareholders, and borrowing money to upgrading plant to digital, so that the service can offer broadband lines and VoIP in a triple play, so this all makes sense.
The report says that 27% of EU cable homes subscribe to cable internet services and that 21% to telephone service from their cable provider and that the UK has the largest number of people that subscribe to all three services – digital TV, internet and telephony. The report also says that the UK remains Europe’s largest digital cable TV market with 3.5 million digital homes, but that’s because almost all of the customers are digital in the UK. This is followed by Germany with 3.3 million digital homes which is perhaps a third of the cable homes there, and the Netherlands at 2 million homes.
Screen Digest reckons that DOCSIS 3.0 will be a key investment for the next few years with its faster broadband speeds up to 160 Mbps and says that cable operators in Western European are already investing heavily in it.