Cable TV Take-Up Falls Quarter On Quarter But Rises Year on Year

The ITC cable statistics for the second quarter of 2000 show that the take-up rate for cable television services fell slightly quarter on quarter, from 26.4% for the first quarter of the year to 26.1% for the second. However, in a yearly analysis this represents an overall rise of 1.2%.

In total 53% of all homes in the UK are now able to take up broadband cable services and the amount of people subscribing now stands at 12.6 million. This figure rose 116,000 quarter on quarter and has increased by more than 655,000 since the same time last year. Cable TV subscribers now make up 13.9% of all TV homes, compared to 12.6% for the same period in 1999.

Telewest continues to lead in terms of homes passed and marketed, with over 4.4m. However, CWC is making progress catching up, with 4.3m. Despite having only 3.7 million homes passed and marketed, NTL enjoys the highest TV penetration rate – 33%, followed by Telewest with 25.6% and CWC with 21.7%.

As of 31 May 2000 all Telewest’s individual franchises have been revoked, to be replaced with a non-exclusive local delivery service licence. A similar situation occurred with NTL from 31 December 1999. As a consequence, and in anticipation of similar steps being taken for the remaining franchises in the near future, data for individual franchise areas is no longer published and will no longer appear in the Cable and Satellite database.

Subscribers can access the Cable & Satellite database by selecting “Cable & Satellite” from the drop-down box at the top of this page.

ITC:020 7255 3000