Revenue growth remains solid across all cable services
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Editor
| 09 March 2017

There is a lot of life yet in the European cable industry, with IHS statistics released by the industry’s trade association, Cable Europe, showing total revenues up 4.6% year-on-year.

The figures show that revenue growth remains solid across all cable services, with broadband Internet the star performer, rising 7.5% annually, followed by TV (3.7%) and then telephony (2.1%). 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.

Even though broadband represents an increasing share of revenue at 32.8%, and the number of broadband subscribers rose 5.9%, the TV sector continues to be the largest source of profit for the industry, accounting for 46.5% of the €23.45 billion of revenue. Cable Europe said that 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 four-fifths of TV revenue.

The effect of many of the continent’s leading cablcos bundling Netflix within their EPG also began to show, with overall digital VOD revenue increasing by 14.1% year-on-year.

Commenting on the results, Cable Europe executive chairman Matthias Kurth said: “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.”