NTL is an end-to-end Divicom/C-Cube customer. UK status of cable companies..........................................
inside-cable.co.uk
UK CABLE - STATUS REPORT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ITC's quarterly figures for 1st October 1998 suggest that UK cable is turning the corner and, given the kinds of seasonal increase which have been seen in the past, the industry will move into 1999 on a high. Costs are getting under control, investment demands are beginning to flatten out (although they remain substantial) and, most important of all, the customer experience is improving.
Potentially more than half of all UK homes can now connect to cable, although only just over 11% actually subscribe. The number of DTH satellite homes remains steady at about 16%. During the last year cable has made up more than two points and the rate of mprovement is increasing ahead of the rate of new build, as demonstrated by the increasing overall penetration percentage.
Top 15 franchises by number of homes passed
Birmingham 437,280 Telewest
Black Country 378,602 Telewest
Avon 300,146 Telewest
Edinburgh 227,563 Telewest
Tyneside 226,170 Telewest
Greater Manchester 213,384 CWC
Leeds 211,789 CWC
Portsmouth 209,034 CWC
Greater London East 193,929 CWC
Nottingham 191,516 Diamond
North Thames Estuary 178,816 Telewest
Motherwell 178,555 Telewest
Thames Valley 172,819 NTL
Hillingdon & Hounslow 167,939 Telewest
Brighton 157,087 CWC
Top 15 franchises by subscriber numbers
Birmingham 117,324 Telewest
Black Country 83,377 Telewest
Avon 69,126 Telewest
Portsmouth 56,919 CWC
Tyneside 56,592 Telewest
Edinburgh 53,941 Telewest
Northern Ireland 51,048 NTL
Teesside 48,459 NTL
North Thames Estuary 48,275 Telewest
Central Herts 44,497 NTL
Greater London East 44,171 CWC
Greater Manchester 43,736 CWC
West Glamorgan 43,120 NTL
Guildford 42,380 NTL
Motherwell 40,997 Telewest
Top 15 franchises by cable TV penetration
Central Herts 53.01 NTL
Inverclyde 47.68 NTL
Dumbarton 45.91 Telewest
Newport 45.36 NTL
Glamorgan & Gwent 45.33 NTL
West Glamorgan 43.85 NTL
Paisley & Renfrew 43.75 NTL
Northern Ireland 39.51 NTL
Cardiff & Penarth 37.80 NTL
Kirklees 35.21 NTL
Greater Glasgow 34.89 NTL
Swindon 34.34 NTL
East Herts 34.11 NTL
Guildford 33.52 NTL
Bearsden & Milngavie 32.63 NTL
There are 45 franchises with penetration better than the national average. These are held by:
NTL - 19
Telewest - 16
CWC - 6
Cable London - 3
Diamond - 1
These franchises have 1,321,238 subscribing homes and the average penetration is 28.44%.
There are 72 franchises with penetration lower than the national average. These are held by:
CWC - 35
Telewest - 16
NTL - 12
Diamond - 4
Eurobell - 2
Cable London - 1
BT - 1
Atlantic - 1
The lowest scoring Telewest franchises are mostly ex-General Cable and the lowest scoring NTL franchises are mostly ex-ComTel. These 72 franchises have 1,329,261 subscribers and the average penetration is 19.31%.
A further 17 franchises have fewer than 2,500 subscribers and details of their performance are not published.
Comment
The growth of the subscriber base is being driven by the lower-cost entry point which is now on offer from all the major companies following the ITC's decision on guaranteed carriage terms. NTL has clearly demonstrated that such mini-tiers offer subscribers an easy way into cable subscription, especially when offered with telephony.
It must be added though, that NTL's customer performance in residential telephony (as indicated in Oftel's performance indicators) is generally so far ahead of both Telewest and Cable & Wireless Communications, that improvements in penetration performance are by no means guaranteed from the new marketing approach on its own.
Packaging is not everything, total customer service standards will count.
The rewards for getting it right are now evident. It is unlikely that digital DTH satellite or terrestrial will have a major long term effect on cable subscriber growth, although there may be a short term blip while cable systems convert over the next two/three years.
The UK cable industry has put down some solid roots and is developing well. The regulatory structure favours its efforts, not in a discriminatory way but in a manner which helps accentuate cable's advantages. Although some 30% of all UK households still have no guarantee of being reached by cable companies, their influence looks set to grow, along with their revenues and, eventually, profits.
|
