The combined networks of Ziggo and UPC now reach almost 54% of all Dutch TV homes, according to Telecompaper’s latest quarterly report on the Dutch Television Market.
The Dutch TV market reported 10,000 net additions during the first quarter of 2015, to end the quarter with 7.87 million subscribers. The growth was driven by 0.6% increase in digital TV subscribers, which was enough to off-set a 4.0% decrease in analogue-only subscribers. The growth in digital TV was driven by IPTV via DSL or fibre, which was enough to off-set a decrease in digital TV via cable customers.
Almost 88% of the market now uses digital TV. Cable still accounted for over half (53.5%) of digital TV subscribers in Q1, despite losing market share to the increasingly available IPTV services over DSL and fibre networks. DSL is responsible for 17.5 percent of the digital TV connections and fibre for almost 11 percent.
The new Ziggo is the largest TV provider with almost 54% of the market in Q1 2015, followed by KPN with 27%. On the digital TV market, Ziggo has a lower market share of almost 49 percent compared to more than 30 percent of KPN.
Telecompaper expects an average annual decrease of 0.2% in the TV subscription market in the period to 2019. Almost all households already have a TV connection and fewer are taking subscriptions for second TVs, in favour of watching video on tablets, computers and other devices.
The retail TV services market (consumer and SOHO) generated an estimated EUR 437 million in revenues in the first quarter of 2015, slightly lower than in the previous quarter. This includes revenues from basic TV subscriptions, pay-TV services and video-on-demand services, and excludes revenues from installation fees and set-top box sales.
