Advanced Television

Strong growth for European Cable

February 15, 2011

Nick Snow@Cable Congress

Figures released by trade body Cable Europe, as the European cable industry convenes for the Cable Congress, show that the sector’s ongoing investments in next-generation Internet access and digital television keeps paying off. With product innovations following one after the other, the industry announced strong 2010 year-end numbers.

Manuel Kohnstamm, President, Cable Europe, reported that the cable industry showed steady growth through the economic crisis, but was now really jumping ahead in performance. “The digitisation of television is re-energising our core TV product markets and our next generation 100Mb+ Internet products – and recent 1Gb+ trials – are sending competitive shockwaves through Europe,” he said.

Newly released Y/E 2010 figures show that total revenue for the industry grew by six per cent to €18.8 billion (compared to three per cent in 2009) in 2010. That growth was realised significantly in cable’s core TV market where the ongoing digitisation has resulted in a six per cent total TV revenue growth (compared to 1.6 per cent in 2009). DTV revenue is up 23 per cent and VOD revenue is up 26 per cent.

The new data from IHS Screen Digest shows that, on the subscriber side, the industry has passed the 100 million RGU mark in Europe with continued double digit subscriber growth for DTV (17.4 per cent), Internet (11 per cent) and telephony (11 per cent).

“We have a history of investing for the long term and I’m delighted that our investments are being recognised as a strategic advantage in Europe’s competitive digital environment,” added Caroline Van Weede, Managing Director, Cable Europe. “The six per cent sector growth speak is only part of our story of investment-driven innovation. We are attracting millions of European consumers who consider quality connectivity key to their daily lives. We are now more than ever a threatening contender to the incumbent telecom operators of Europe,” she declared.

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