Annual Cable & Satellite Round-Up – 1999

By October* last year cable penetration had reached one quarter of all UK homes passed. This means that of the 12.6 million homes that have been physical set up to receive cable services, 3.2 million (or 25%) have so far subscribed to either telephony, television or both. This is an increase in penetration of 2.0% points on October 1998.

The gradual consolidation of ownership in the cable industry came to what could be end during 1999 as the three major players forged merger deals. Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) and NTL agreed the terms of an £8.2 billion merger, effectively pushing Telewest Communications out of the picture (see NTL Spends £8.2bn On Cable & Wireless Communications). The merger is currently under investigation by the Competition Commission after being referred by trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers (see Cable & Wireless Communications “Disappointed” By Stephen Byers Move).

In December last year Telewest put together its own £2.3 billion merger with pay-TV channel producer Flextech (see Telewest And Flextech Agree Terms Of £2.26bn Merger). The two companies complement one another well, as Telewest offers distribution to Flextech’s portfolio of channels and boosts its own TV content at the same time.

The cable industry has also begun to develop its digital and interactive television services, with Telewest and CWC both currently rolling out across the country. NTL has yet to begin broadcasting digital after missing a series of its launch deadlines. Despite having yet to launch a digital service, NTL had the largest active customer base as of October last year. Telewest is the second largest group and CWC the third. In terms of homes passed though, Telewest and CWC lead with just over four million each.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB celebrated its tenth birthday in February last year, having grown from a start-up, four-network service in 1989 to one of the world’s top 250 companies (see 10 Years Of Sky). The company’s bid to acquire Manchester United Football Club was also finally blocked by the then Monopolies & Mergers Commission (now Competition Commission) in April (see BSkyB’s Man Utd Takeover Is Blocked).

By October last year, a year after launch, BSkyB’s digital service had signed up 1.8 million customers. According to BARB dish estimates, which have effectively been frozen for the last ten months due to over-projections, there were just over four million analogue satellite homes in the UK in December.

* Official ITC cable figures are only available for the period up to October 1999 at this time.

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