EU cable TV subscriptions have grown for the first time in six years as digital TV and broadband emerged as the key drivers for cable.
In its 15th European Broadband Cable report for Cable Europe, IHS said triple play revenues had grown by 5.3% in 2015 to €22.6 billion. Other key metrics presented to the trade body in Brussels on Tuesday included 0.2% growth in TV homes to 55.6 million, 3.3% growth in RGUs to 117 million and an increase of 9.4% in digital cable homes to reach 34.9 million.
“Triple play is the cable opportunity, not any of the individual services,” Ben Keen Vice President, Consumer, Media, Telecoms & Displays told Broadband TV News, adding that although its significance is increasing, mobile was not yet critical. Keen said that Liberty’s purchase of the 3.5 million subs BASE in Belgium would take it from 30th to 21st place in terms of size. “The more you bundle the more traction you have and that makes a big difference,” he said.
Despite the continued presence of Netflix and other over-the-top services – if taken as an operator Netflix would now be Europe’s third largest operator behind Liberty Global and Sky Europe – pay-TV continues grow with little talk of cord cutting as is the case in the United States. “The appetite for pay-TV services is increasing quite dramatically,” said Keen. “The quality of services, technically and content-wise has been increasing dramatically. People want to see it and have been taking out the subs.”
“The mindset in Europe is different from the US, where OTT is an ongoing threat,” said Mathias Kurth, executive chairman, Cable Europe. “Our average revenue per user is much much lower than the US, so any operator would be happy to have the ARPU of the states. According to IHS Europe’s Triple Play ARPU at €28.86 is way behind the €86 across the Atlantic. “We are not afraid of further competition from OTT or others – we’re proud to be a part of the competitive forces. In the past it’s been shown that cable is a driving force in broadband.”
Fixed broadband is close to universal: Over 97% of EU households now have broadband availability, while over 70% of homes can claim next generation access at speeds of over 30Mbps. Moreover, Europe is now overtaking the US in the adoption of high-speed broadband. There are now over 9 million DOCSIS 3 subscribers in Europe, though VDSL (14 million) and FTTP (10 million) are both ahead. But cable has been more successful in converting customers to DOCSIS 3.0 than telcos in moving customers to the equivalent technologies.
