Cable Media - March 2018 20_CABLE MEDIA 2018 | Page 13

and platforms at IHS Markit. “Investments
in network upgrades and advanced platforms
have already delivered in terms of ARPU and
revenue increases, and are set to do so again in
the coming years.”
For the European cable industry, the last
two years witnessed mergers and acquisitions.
In Belgium, Telenet made a €400m bid for
Altice’s SFR Belux. In the Nordic region, pay
DTT operator Boxer was acquired by Com
Hem, Sweden’s leading cable operator, in a
deal worth €144m. Spanish cable operator
Euskaltel emerged as a significant player,
consolidating the Galician operator R, which
it acquired in 2015. And Liberty Global’s UPC
Polska, Poland’s largest cable operator, agreed
to buy Multimedia Polska for approximately
€700m in cash.
Even some of the smallest cable markets in
Europe experienced important developments
on the M&A front. A series of transactions
• The UK has Europe’s highest number of
SVoD subscriptions, more than double those
in Germany in 2017 – Kagan expect this to
saw Estonia’s Starman eventually come
services and a dominant multichannel
under the control of the Finnish telco
sector.
Elisa. Lithuania’s Cgates was taken over
EU cable industry
hits €23.4bn by Estonian companies Polaris and Com
the end of 2019 – due to the French market show resiliency and steady growth in 2017, having only 10.3% SVoD to broadband increasing 2% from the prior year, with consolidation in cable, especially in
homes penetration, compared to 45.1% in gross revenue of €23.4 billion, according to the Netherlands in 2017, leaving room for the latest findings from critical information, further growth. analytics and solutions source IHS Markit.
continue over the next five years
• France, which currently ranks fourth behind
the Netherlands, is expected to outperform
its neighbour and capture the third spot at
• SVoD services are especially popular in
The European cable industry continued to
Sweden ranking as the countries with for the European cable market, include:
the highest penetration rates, ranging • The number of cable RGUs in the EU
fragmented markets in Central and Eastern
Europe,” noted Rua Aguete.
A number of significant content deals
over recent years, the highest profile of these a
global partnership agreement between Liberty
Global and Netflix, which brought the online
from 76.2% to 86.1% in 2017. This can be continued to climb steadily, reaching 121.4m
attributed to the countries’ high percentage at the end of 2017;
• The UK follows with 59% SVoD to
broadband household penetration,
surpassing Germany and France
• Russia, Spain and Portugal are the three
least SVoD-penetrated markets in Europe
• Looking at 2017 estimated gross national
income purchasing power parity (GNI
PPP) indexes by country combined with
the average monthly cost of a subscription
to a video-on-demand service provides
an indicator of SVoD affordability for a
market’s average household. Even though
Denmark is the country with the highest
comprising 34% of Western European cable
operator revenue;
with an index of 0.06%. This is influenced
by alarmingly high levels of piracy, income
inequality, prevalence of free ad-funded
ADVANCED TELEVISION
The marrying of content and ubiquitous
access remains a key strategic focus for cable
operators, who demonstrate their broadband
• Germany remained the largest EU market,
superiority by connecting more and more
with over three times more unique cable
customers to DOCSIS 3.0 networks and,
homes than the next biggest markets,
Romania, the UK and Poland, each of which
had over 5m unique subscribers, compared
to Germany’s 18.7m
eventually, DOCSIS 3.1 and its gigabit speeds.
Out-of-home Wi-Fi continues to be an area of
investment as well.
“Advanced TV services that cater to users’
“European cable operators are focused on
changing expectations and needs will help
providing the best services to their customers operators deliver the best experience for their
in what is an increasingly competitive Internet and content offerings,” explained Rua
marketplace,” advised Maria Rua Aguete, Aguete. “Next on the horizon are widespread
executive director for media, service providers ultra-HD service rollouts.”
services are the least affordable to subscribe
for a monthly online video subscription,
across Liberty’s footprint. Previously, the US
Virgin Media subscribers in the UK.
Internet revenue continues to rise,
it is the Portugal market where SVoD
to with an index of 0.4%.
subscription video service to cable subscribers
cable company had only offered Netflix to
• Reflecting trends in consumer behaviour,
average monthly subscription cost of $13.41,
• Russia is the most affordable country to pay
cable operator Cablenet.
“There’s plenty of room for further
Key findings from IHS Markit, which
the Nordics, with Denmark, Norway and
incomes higher than the European average.
GO secured a majority stake in the Cypriot
involving cable operators have transpired
provides consolidated full-year 2017 figures
of English-speakers as well as disposable
Holding. Meanwhile, Malta’s incumbent telco
End 2016
(m) End 2017
(m)
Total RGUs 119.0 121.4
TV 55.56 55.50
Internet 35.69 37.32
Telephony 27.76 28.59
© 2018 IHS Markit
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