Cable Subscribers Treble In Three Years

Broadband cable TV subscribers increased by over 400,000 throughout 1995, an increase of 45%. The number has increased threefold over the past three years to a new total of 1.33 million.

The ITC’s latest cable statistics, for the last quarter of 1995 show that over 6 million homes have now been passed; this means penetration is now 22%, the same figure as the same quarter last year. There are now 105 operating franchises, 25 more than a year ago. Cable subscription in terms of total TV homes has now reached 5.9%, compared to 5.2% last quarter and 4.1% a year ago.

In terms of individual franchise areas, Birmingham remains the area with by far the largest number of homes connected; at 87,246 this is almost twice as many as the next highest, the Black Country. However, Teesside remains the area with the highest rate of penetration, this quarter up to over 42%. Cardifff/Newport has over 37% penetration and then Swindon has 35.2% penetration.

The gradual increase in subscribers is shown by the increase in audience to cable channels; last quarter there were 16 channels which had a potential audience of over 1 million; this quarter it has increased to 23; the channel with the biggest audience remains Sky One.

Among the cable operators, TeleWest remains the largest, having passed over 1.8 million homes, and connected 399,000. The next largest operator is Nynex, which has passed half the amount of TeleWest, at 994,917.