Cable TV was predicted to enjoy an upturn in popularity, with Europe leading the way in terms of take up, at the MediaTelINSIGHT Future of Digital TV Seminar, held earlier this week.
Sitting on the seminar discussion panel, journalist and broadcaster Ray Snoddy was optimistic about cable prevalence in the digital television market, pointing to companies in Europe to validate his point.
Snoddy said: “Cable around Europe is starting to take off again, most of the cable companies have sorted their finances and believe that triple play, the ability to offer television, telephone and broadband, has finally arrived. They believe that they have the ability to offer it better than anyone else.”
“A recent cable industry in Europe has found that they were thinking of offering maybe a 100 megabit service, which would make the current one or two very paltry indeed, and using that capacity to offer high definition television.”
He continued: “I think we’ve all been so impressed with the deep incompetence of the British cable companies that we’ve been lulled into a false sense of security that they’re dead forever. However, once they get out of what is essentially bankruptcy chapter 11, once they’re refinanced and the poor investors have lost everything and the bank owns them. I see no reason why NTL and Telewest can’t merge because they’re not a geographically competing service.”
Snoddy added: “I’m scared to even say this, there is a possibility that cable could do well over the long term. The sheer push of capacity may actually prevent them from failing. Cable should not be ignored.
The MediaTelINSIGHT Digital TV Report, shows an increase in global cable subscription and predicts that it will hold an estimated 21% share of the market by 2010 (see Global Digital TV To Reach 144 Million Homes By End Of 2005).
The latest research from broadband analysis company, Point Topic, reveals cable modems to have grown slightly faster than digital subscriber lines (DSL) in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole during 2004 (see Global Broadband Penetration Exceeds 2004 Forecasts).
Canada was revealed as one of the few places outside the Asia-Pacific region where cable modems showed a higher growth rate than DSL during 2004, with a rise of 9.5% against 8.5%.
