Major operators in Hungary end 2009 with 1.141 million digital TV subscribers

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
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The share of digital television increased significantly in 2009

In December 2009, the number of households with digital television subscriptions in the network of Hungary’s fourteen largest broadcasters rose to 1,141,000, an increase of 23,000, states the flash report released by the National Communications Authority (Nemzeti Hírközlési Hatóság – NHH).

The flash report is based on data provided on a voluntary basis by Hungary’s 14 largest broadcasters and covers approximately 80 to 85 percent of the subscription television services market. According to NHH estimates and previous surveys, approximately 3,000,000 of the nearly 3,800,000 Hungarian households subscribe to some kind of television service. The remaining nearly 800,000 households watch analogue and digital terrestrial broadcasts accessible through rooftop or room antennae, or unencoded satellite broadcasts.

The service providers featured in the flash report – Magyar Telekom Nyrt., Invitel Zrt., UPC Kft., FiberNet Zrt., DIGI Kft., PR TELEKOM Zrt., Zelka ZRt., TARR Kft., TvNetWork NyRt., ViDaNet Zrt., PARISAT Kft., RubiCom Zrt., Antenna Hungária Zrt. and HD Platform Kft. – registered a total of 2,489,000 subscriptions at the end of December, 17,000 more than one month earlier.

The NHH issued its first flash report on television in April 2009. The number of subscribers of the service providers featured in the flash report increased by 67,000 between April and the end of the year, with the number of digital television subscribers growing by 152,000, and the number of analogue cable television subscribers falling by 84,000 to 1,349,000.

In December, 45.8 percent of subscribers of the service providers featured in the flash report used digital services, compared to 45.2 percent in November and 40.8 percent in April 2009.

Within the sector of digital subscriptions, the number of subscribers to cable television or IPTV rose from 374,000 to 389,000, while the number of satellite service subscribers increased by 8,000 to 752,000. In December, the number of cable television or IPTV subscribers among households with subscriptions increased to 15.6 percent from 12 percent in April and 15.1 percent in November, according to data provided by the service providers featured in the flash report. The share of satellite subscriptions stood at 28.8 percent in April, 30.1 percent at the end of November and 30.2 percent at the end of December 2009. The share of analogue cable television services stood at 59.2 percent in April, 54.8 percent in November and 54.2 percent at the end of the year.

The flash report comprehensively covers all satellite services, including the subscription-based wireless service operated by Antenna Hungária (AH). In this sector, market leader DIGI’s market share dropped from 51.1 percent in November to 49.4 percent in December, UPC’s share rose from 24.6 to 24.7 percent, while Magyar Telecom upped its market share from 19.1 to 20.8 percent.

In terms of the analogue and digital cable services market–cable television and IPTV–, the flash report covers 75 to 80 percent of the total number of subscriptions. The number of cable subscriptions of the service providers featured in the report rose from 1,728,000 to 1,738,000 in December, with the number of analogue subscriptions falling by 5,000 and that of digital subscriptions increasing by 15,000. With respect to cable services, industry leader UPC’s market share fell from 35.3 to 35.0 per cent, that of runner-up Magyar Telekom rose from 21.6 to 21.8 per cent, while DIGI, ranking third, upped its market share from 12.1 to 12.2 per cent.

Of the service providers covered by the flash report, considering all service types, UPC leads the pack, with a market share of 32.1 percent at the end of December, following 32.1 percent in November. Runner-up DIGI’s market share fell from 23.9 to 23.4 percent, while Magyar Telecom (T-Home), ranking third, upped its market share from 20.8 to 21.5 percent.

More: Flash Report