Digital transition drives growth in European cable

Wednesday, March 8th, 2017
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Digital transition continues to drive sustained growth in Cable industry

  • Revenues increase by 4.6% and the sector shows strong potential for the future with Digital TV and broadband

BRUSSELS — The cable industry is growing, with total revenues up 4.6% year on year based on IHS statistics released today by the industry’s trade association, Cable Europe, at the annual Cable Congress in Brussels.

Revenue growth remains solid across all cable services: broadband internet (7.5%), TV (3.7%) and telephony (2.1%). Broadband represents an increasing share of revenue at 32.8%, and the number of broadband subscribers rose 5.9%. Television continues to be the largest source of profit for the industry, accounting for 46.5% of the €23.45 billion of revenue.

Cable Congress 2017 Industry Figures

The digital transition continues to be an important driver for TV services, with revenue growth for TV driven by a strong appetite for digital subscriptions and video on demand (VOD). Digital TV subscribers rose 6.3%, accounting for 66.3% of all TV subscriptions and generating 80% of TV revenue.

More than 2.7 million Revenue Generating Units (RGUs), the industry metric for the total sum of TV, internet and telephony subscriptions, were added in 2016, and the total across Europe is now 118.24 million.

Manuel Kohnstamm, President of Cable Europe, commented: “Overall digital VOD revenue has increased by 14.1% year on year, showing solid growth in the year. Going forward, we still see huge opportunities for sustained digital growth in Europe, as 18.5 million analogue TV subscribers are still to convert.”

Cable Europe Executive Chairman Matthias Kurth added: “Continued investment in infrastructure and content shows cable is providing consumers with the content they want in a digital age. As cable continues to convert analogue homes to digital, giving consumers more choice and content will result in them taking up more services. This trend should continue with the digital revolution across cable.”

Cable Congress 2017 is taking place in Brussels on 8th and 9th of March.