Penetration Rate Not Matched By Revenue For Cable TV

The latest quarterly cable statistics from the Independent Television Commission (ITC) show that cable TV penetration has risen by 2.1 percentage points year on year to 28.5% of homes passed and marketed. Cable TV take-up rate has increased by 10.1% in the same period, with 3.6m or 15% of TV households subscribing.

The ITC figures also show that 1.25m cable TV customers now recieve a digital service and 50,000 use cable modems for high speed internet access.

The rate of digital conversion meant that cable’s share of the digital TV market is now 16.6%. However, the uptake of satellite TV was three times higher than that of cable, and digital terrestrial services have been increasing their subscriber rate around 6 times as fast. This has resulted in cable’s share of the pay TV market declining by 4.6 percentage points to 36.5%.

The ITC’s research also shows that cable TV did not see a particularly large increase in its revenue per subscriber, which increased only 66p year on year to £21.01.

Of the different providers, NTL, strengthened by its Cable & Wireless merger, continues to lead the field, with just under 7.8m homes passed and marketed and a penetration rate fo 29.7%. Next contender Telewest trails with 4.7m passed and marketed and a penetration rate of 26.9%.

ITC: 020 7306 7743 www.itc.org.uk

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