CABLE CONGRESS 2013 – LONDON. European cable companies delivered top line revenue growth of 5.5% as a 12% climb in digital TV services contributed towards an increase of €1 billion.
Welcoming delegates to the Cable Congress in London, Manuel Kohnstamm, president, Cable Europe, said the sector was at a major crossroads in both digital delivery and content. “The cable industry is changing from fundamentally a television business to a full service telecoms industry.”
Illustrating his point with data provided by IHS Screen Digest, Kohnstamm said the €20.6 billion revenue figure had come from the increasing number of fibre rich services being taken by customers. “While we are successfully adding new services we are also adding new customers. The overwhelming majority of the new RGUs are from the telecoms side, the internet and telephony businesses.”
However, there was an admission that while digital services are growing revenues, the total number of households connected to TV is falling overall. The figures hit by the number of utility-type customers who find their way to DTT services on analogue switch off as well as the emerging IPTV platforms.
It was revealed that 32 Mbps is the average speed of broadband internet connection.
