1.083 million digital pay TV households in Hungary at end-September

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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Significant Interest in September for Digital Television Programmes

In September 2009, the number of households in Hungary watching digital television increased by sixteen thousand to 1.083 million, 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 the 14 largest Hungarian broadcasters, and covers approximately 80-85 percent of the subscription television services market. According to NHH estimates and previous surveys, of the close to 3.8 million Hungarian households approximately 3 million subscribe to some sort of television service. The remaining 800 thousand households watch analogue and digital terrestrial broadcasts accessible through rooftop or room antennae or freely viewable satellite broadcasts.

At the end of September, the service providers featured in the 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 2.459 million subscriptions, 8 thousand less than a month before.

In September within the examined sector, digitalisation increased from 43.5 to 44.0 percent. At the same time the number of persons with analogue subscriptions among subscribers dropped by 8000 to 1.376 million.

Within the sector of digital subscriptions, the number of persons subscribing to cable television or IPTV jumped by 10 thousand to 347 thousand, while the number of people using satellite services increased by 6 thousand to 736 thousand. According to data provided by service providers featured in the flash report, in September the ratio of persons subscribing to digital cable television or IPTV within households holding subscriptions grew from 13.7 to 14.1 percent. The percentage of persons with satellite subscriptions climbed from 29.8 to 29.9, while that of analogue cable television services dropped from 56.5 to 56.0 percent.

The flash report comprehensively covers all satellite services, including the wireless service operated by Antenna Hungária (AH). In this sector the number of subscribers increased from 730 000 to 736 000 in September. The market share of industry leader DIGI dropped from 54.3 percent to 53.3 percent; that of UPC decreased from 25.1 to 24.9 percent, while Magyar Telekom expanded its market share from 15.3 to 16.5 percent.

In terms of the analogue and digital cable service market–cable television and IPTV–, the flash report covers 75-80 percent of the total number of subscriptions. In September, the number of cable subscriptions of the service providers featured in the report jumped from 1721 thousand to 1723 thousand, specifically the number of analogue subscriptions dropped from 1.384 million to 1.376 million, while the number of digital subscriptions jumped from 337 to 347 thousand. As far as cable services are concerned, the market share of leader UPC dropped to 35.8 percent (from 36.3 in August), that of second place Magyar Telekom and third place DIGI grew from 20.9 to 21.2 percent and from 11.1 to 11.6 percent respectively.

Of the service providers included in the flash report–taking all services into account–UPC is heading the pack, however, its market share dropped from previous month’s 33.0 percent to 32.5 percent. The share of runner-up DIGI went from 23.9 to 24.1 percent, while third place Magyar Telekom (T-Home) increased its market share from 19.2 to 19.8 percent.

More: Flash Report