Digital now over half of cable TV revenues

Digital TV now accounts for over half of cable TV revenues, according to figures released today by cable industry association Cable Europe at the Cable Congress in Brussels.

Cable revenues overall in the 27 EU states grew by 3% last year, taking the total to €17.9bn. Broadband revenues were up 3% to €4.8bn while telephony grew 7% to €3bn. Digital TV revenues were up 20% to €4.74bn, representing 51% of TV revenues. Revenues from video-on-demand were up 18.3% to 358m.

Cable broadband subscribers rose by 13.4% to 21.5 million, while telephony subs rose by 14.8% to 16.2 million. Germany performed particularly strongly, with cable internet subscribers up 45% and telephony up 50%. Broadband now represents 27% of all cable revenues, while telephony accounts for 17% and TV 56%.

Some 16 EU countries now have 100Mbps-plus cable internet services. “Most cable companies have decided to go down this path to create more competitive parameters,” said Manuel Kohnstamm, Cable Europe president. “DOCSIS 3.0 allows us to go to speeds which for our competitors are for now difficult to match and will require additional investment.” He said that cable’s ability to provide such speeds helped demonstrate that cable offered a future-proof path to consumers and demonstrated the value of infrastructure competition to politicians.