It has taken the European cable industry 6 years to double its revenues in Europe according to figures released this week at Cable Europe, by the European Cable Communications Association.
Cable still has double digit growth it says at 12%, with digital cable growing at 53% per annum.
Revenues have risen from €9.4 billion ($12.2 billion) to €18.8 billion ($24.4 billion) from 2000 to 2006 and now broadband Internet and telephony accounts for more than a third of revenue.
In the last two years, the number of digital TV subscribers has doubled, reaching 11 million subscribers in 2006. Year-on-year Europe had a 53% increase in digital cable TV subscribers. Countries such as Germany, Netherlands and Belgium are catching up on the UK’s early lead with strong growth of digital cable TV in 2006.
Cable telephony services, showed a 21.6% year-on-year growth in subscriber numbers and this is the strongest growth since the launch of cable telephony in Europe. The organization is expecting even stronger growth during 2007 with VoIP telephony as the main driver. Today, there are 10 million cable telephony subscribers in Europe.