Satellite Growth Slowing Down

Growth of installed satellite TV dishes during the first six months of 1994 was 200,000, the lowest six-monthly growth recorded by monitoring company GfK, since they began measuring the market in 1991.

However, satellite dishes grew by 34,000 in June, to 2,666,000; this is significantly better than the 20,000 increase measured during May. GfK’s commercial director John Binks said, “The satellite dish market peaked in the second half of 1991, with net installations of 345,000 dishes. Since then, there has been a noticeable decline.”

“This downward trend tends to confirm research we conducted earlier this year, which showed that 20% fewer people intended to install satellite TV dishes than did a year ago,” said John Binks.

In March 1994, a GfK survey indicated that 361,000 householders intended to install satellite dishes within the next twelve months. In March 1993, this figure was 451,000. 81% of the householders GfK surveyed in March 1994 said they had no intention of acquiring a dish.

In the year to March 1994, the number of households with functioning satellite dishes grew by 421,000. The acquisition of satellite dishes over this period was proportionately most popular among the social group C2, and least popular among ABs.