Dutch TV market grows in Q4 driven by IPTV via DSL, fibre

Houten, The Netherlands, 06 March 2015 - The Dutch TV market reported 20,000 net additions during the fourth quarter of 2014, to end the year with 7.76 million subscribers. The growth was driven by 0.6 percent increase in digital TV subscribers, which was enough to off-set a 4.6 percent decrease in analogue-only subscribers, according to Telecompaper's latest quarterly report on the Dutch Television Market. The growth in digital TV was driven by IPTV via DSL or fibre, while cable did grow but only a little.

Almost 90 percent of the market now uses digital TV. Cable still accounted for over half (54%) of digital TV subscribers in Q4, despite losing market share to the increasingly available IPTV services over DSL and fibre networks. DSL is responsible for 17 percent of the digital TV connections and fibre for almost 11 percent.

The combined market share of Ziggo and UPC, which recently merged to form a near-national cable network, amounted to almost 54 percent of the market at the end of 2014. The former UPC areas were good for around 20 percent and the former Ziggo areas accounted for almost 34 percent. KPN is second with a market share of almost 27 percent. On the digital market, the new Ziggo has slightly more than 49 percent of which 16 percent is former UPC and 33 percent is old Ziggo. KPN is number two with 29.5 percent. 

“The new Ziggo will face a challenge halting the steady decline in cable’s TV market share,” said Telecompaper analyst and report author Kamiel Albrecht. “We expect zero growth in the TV subscription market in the period to 2019. Almost all households already have a TV connection and fewer are taking subscriptions for second TVs, in favour of watching video on tablets, computers and other devices.”

Telecompaper estimates that the consumer TV services market* generated almost EUR 410 million in revenues in the fourth quarter of 2014, slightly higher than in the previous quarter. Its ‘Dutch TV Market Q4 2014’ report also provides a detailed forecast for revenues, subscriptions and provider and technology market shares for the period through 2019.