Dutch digital TV subscribers grow to 6.66 million in 2013

Friday, March 28th, 2014
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HOUTEN, The Netherlands — The number of digital TV connections in the Netherlands grew by 1.0 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013 to 6.66 million on 31 December 2013. According to Telecompaper’s latest quarterly Dutch Television Market report, digital TV was used by 86.1 percent of TV subscribers in the Netherlands, including 3.69 million cable subscribers who also have analogue TV connections. The total TV market grew to 7.74 million at the end of 2013.

Cable still accounted for over half (55.4%) of digital TV subscribers in Q4, despite losing market share due to the growing adoption of IPTV services over DSL and FTTH networks. DSL was the second most common way to receive TV, followed by satellite and terrestrial, which are both losing market share. FTTH, while growing its market share, remained in fifth place.

Ziggo was the largest TV provider at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, both in the total TV market and the digital TV market. KPN, UPC and CanalDigitaal followed in the rankings.

“The digital TV market is expected to grow by around 5 percent during 2014 to more than 7 million connections at year-end,” said Telecompaper analyst and report author Kamiel Albrecht. “While growth is slowing somewhat at the cable operators, the DSL and fibre providers continue to increase their TV customer numbers.”

Telecompaper estimates that the retail revenues* for the consumer TV market totaled EUR 395 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, slightly higher than in Q3 2013. The revenues are expected to continue to grow at 0.5 percent CAGR until 2018.

* The reported retail revenues include revenues from basic TV subscriptions (digital/analogue), pay-TV services and video-on-demand service. These exclude revenues from installation fees and set-top box sales.

Due to continuous improvements in our calculations, the numbers in this press release cannot directly be compared with numbers from earlier press releases sent out by Telecompaper on previous studies of the Dutch television market.