InfoCom Says Satellite and Cable Dominate the Market for Paid-for TV Subscriptions

Stuttgart, Germany, January 07, 2011 --(PR.com)-- According to InfoCom's most recent release of the Quarterly TV Monitoring, the top-10 largest groups, at World level, collectively posted 145m paid-for* TV subscriptions, 54% of which attributed to satellite TV (2Q10). The top-10 ranking is lead by US-based satellite TV player, DirecTV, with 25m subscriptions, of which 25% from its Latin American subsidiaries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela). DISH Network, another US-based satellite TV player, is ranked 4th, with 14.3m subscriptions, attributable solely to domestic operations. BSkyB, the UK-based satellite TV provider, has 9.9m subscriptions from its operations in UK and Ireland.

News Corporation is ranked 7th, with 11.6m subscriptions largely from satellite TV – attributable to its subsidiaries in Austria (Sky Austria), Germany (Sky Deutschland) and Italy (Sky Italy), as well as interests in BSkyB (News Corporation launched a bid to take full control of BSkyB). The group has also minority interests in 2 subsidiaries offering cable TV, Australia-based Foxtel and Hathway Cable, based in India. Should News Corporation be successful in its bid to acquire BSkyB, the company would become the third largest player. The French-based giant Vivendi is ranked 8th, with about 70% of the group’s total base (10.6m) estimated as coming from satellite TV operations in France and Poland. Over 85% of TV paid-for subscriptions of India-based Essel are from Dish TV, the satellite TV subsidiary. The group provides also cable TV through Wire and Wireless (WWIL).

Liberty Global, owning the UPC brand, had around 15.6m cable TV customers — most of which from their Western European operations in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Switzerland. The group’s satellite TV base is only 7% of the total base, originating from Eastern European operations (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia) under the UPC brand; as well as the Australian subsidiary Austar.

Providence Equity Partners has interests in both cable and satellite TV – the most significant of which are Kabel Deutschland (also called KDG - Germany) and Com Hem (Sweden). These carriers contribute with 10.3m (78%) subscribers to the group‘s total base. Providence has also significant interests in BCE, DigiTurk, Volia Cable as well as a minority interest in TDC, contributing with some IPTV subscriptions.

*InfoCom Quarterly TV Monitoring service monitors paid-for monthly contractual subscriptions to TV packages and services from providers using four distribution platforms — broadband Internet (IPTV), cable, satellite and terrestrial, including both pay-TV as well as basic subscriptions to cable TV.

About Quarterly Monitoring Service TV Scenarios: This extract in based on InfoCom Quarterly TV Monitoring, providing TV market data from 2004 to the current year + 5 year forecasts with a large amount of figures and indicators for households, broadband and FTTx; TV watchers by access platform; TV subscribers, with IPTV; market share of TV players. If you wish to know more about InfoCom, do not hesitate to contact us. Talk to us. We listen.

About InfoCom: InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.

###