European cable top-line growth accelerates by 5.9% in 2013

Industry adds more than €1 billion in revenues at YE2013 on the back of strong uptick in high-speed broadband and telephony subscribers and continued switch to digital services

AMSTERDAM — Cable investments in high-speed broadband connections and new service platforms drove top-line revenues across Europe up 5.9% to €21.9bn in 2013, according to new IHS statistics released by Cable Europe, the industry’s trade association, at Cable Congress 2014 in Amsterdam. The more than €1bn increase in annual revenues benefited from 9.1% growth in broadband revenues, 6.5% growth in telephony revenues and a greater share of TV revenues now digital (more than 70%) than ever before.

Cable Europe President Manuel Kohnstamm commented: “The past year has seen significant transformation and change in our industry, and all of us feel good about cable’s ability to grow through those cycles. As our customers increasingly go digital, over-the-top and outside the home, cable is positioned as the future of entertainment”.

The cable sector has received positive attention lately with the announcement of acquisitions and IPOs. The consolidation of the sector is a necessary step for fuelling cable companies’ competitive moves in a very dynamic environment. Demanding consumers, new technologies, very aggressive telecom operators and agile OTTs are constantly reinventing the market.

                                     2013
                          ---------------
                          Growth    Total
                          ------  -------
TV subscribers             -1.4%  56.85mn  (57.65mn in 2012)
 Digital TV subscribers    +7.6%  30.86mn  (28.69mn in 2012)
 Analogue TV subscribers  -10.3%  25.98mn  (28.97mn in 2012)

54.3% of TV subscribers are now digital

“Cable is a shining star at a time when Europe’s leaders are calling for more investment in digital infrastructure to connect our continent,” said Cable Europe Executive Chairman Matthias Kurth. “We continue to attract European consumers with a truly unparalleled connectivity platform. While digital TV subscribers now make up the majority of TV subscriptions in Europe, converting the remaining 25.9 million analogue customers is one of cable’s many long-term runways to growth.”