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Home > Research and Market Data > Television research > Reports and Research > DTV Updates > DTV Update 2003 Q4 > Platform updates
Platform Updates
Digital Satellite - Pay DSat
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Source: BSkyB
*These figures are for the UK and exclude Sky's subscribers in the Republic of Ireland.
Sky's UK subscriber base reached 6,893,000 during the quarter with 175,000 net additions to its pay-TV service during the quarter. This was an increase in the rate of take-up of 5,000 on Q3 2003, when 170,000 subscribers joined Sky.
Annualised average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) increased by £3 in the quarter to £369 - Sky aims to achieve ARPU of £400 by 2005. Churn decreased slightly during the quarter from 9.4% to 9.3%. and has remained below 10% for more than a year.
Sky's UK subscriber base reached 6,893,000 during the quarter with 175,000 net additions to its pay-TV service during the quarter. This was an increase in the rate of take-up of 5,000 on Q3 2003, when 170,000 subscribers joined Sky.
Annualised average revenue per subscriber (ARPU) increased by £3 in the quarter to £369 - Sky aims to achieve ARPU of £400 by 2005. Churn decreased slightly during the quarter from 9.4% to 9.3%. and has remained below 10% for more than a year.
Digital Satellite - Free-to-View DSat
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Following the BBC's decision to stop encrypting its services on satellite, the scheme run by the BBC to provide Free-to-view "solus" conditional access viewing cards came to an end. During 2003, Sky upgraded its conditional access system, replacing all old "P1" conditional access cards with new "P2" cards. Any "solus" viewers left with old P1 cards lost access to the digital satellite services of ITV 1,Channel 4, Five and S4C and therefore ceased to be digital homes, (although they can still receive BBC digital services). The same happened to viewers with P1 cards who had been subscribing to Sky pay services but had "churned off", becoming free-to-view homes.
Those viewers who had lost their free-to-view services had the opportunity to obtain a new "solus" card under a scheme operated by Channel 4 between July 2003 and January 2004. Only 111,000 did so and this scheme has now come to an end. A further 100,000 viewers are estimated to have churned-off Sky subscription services but have a P2 card and so for the time being can receive all of the free-to-view public service channels. Consequently the number of free-to-view satellite households has reduced by 616,700.
There is currently no scheme in place for viewers who wish to take-up free-to-view satellite. The only additional free-to-view satellite households in future will be those who churn-off Sky's subscription service.
Cable
The operating statistics for the key cable companies below are as for Q3 September 2003. Q4 figures will be added upon release:
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Source: Company data
*Telewest churn rates apply to the cable TV division only. Ntl churn rates apply to the total consumer division.
By 30 September 2003, the total number of UK cable households was 3,277,167. Of these, 2,009,700 subscribed to ntl, 1,258,549 to Telewest, and the remainder to Omne Communications and Wightcable. Telewest subscribers showed an increase of 8,038 in the quarter, whilst NTL subscribers saw a decrease of 13,000.
Overall, the industry saw an increase in total subscribers of 17,116, to 3,277,167. Digital subscribers also continued to grow, reaching 2,248,190 by the end of Q3 2003 - an increase of 2.7% from Q2 2003.
Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
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An adjustment has been made to account for the number of households which have digital on more than one set. Ofcom estimates that 15% of sales of Freeview adapters in the last quarter were bought for use on second sets by people who already have digital (either Freeview or Sky or cable) on their main set. An adjustment has also been made for previous quarters, although it has been assumed that earlier in the life of Freeview, a smaller proportion of adapters were used for second sets. No adjustment has been made to the Sky or cable figures as these are already shown net of second receivers (e.g. a household with two Sky boxes is only recorded once).
Due to strong Christmas sales, DTT households increased by approximately 866,500 households during Q4, representing an increase of 41% on the previous quarter. Of these, Ofcom estimates that 1,961,500 use new Freeview adapters, 525,200 use IDTV sets, and the remaining 510,000 use former ITV Digital set-top boxes.
Set-top boxes have recently reduced in price and a number are now available for around £50, compared with £99 since launch. It has also been possible to obtain free-to-air digital decoders at lower prices.
TV over ADSL
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Source: Company data
The total number of subscribers to TV over ADSL declined by 11.5% in Q4 2003 to 8,887. Of those homes taking TV over ADSL, 5,337 subscribed to Kingston Interactive and 3,550 to Homechoice. Homechoice's TV penetration rate also shows a larger decline from Q2 onwards - this is as a result of an increase in the number of homes passed following a reorganisation of Homechoice's parent company, Video Networks, and of its delivery system design.
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