United Kingdom - Digital Economy and Digital TV - Insights, Statistics and Analysis

Synopsis

The UK remains at the forefront of media convergence in Europe. The country’s comprehensive DSL and extensive cable network are being continually upgraded to provide an improved delivery platform for converged and bundled offerings. The digital broadcasting industry, including satellite, digital cable, digital terrestrial and IPTV services, is well established – the UK has the highest level of digital TV penetration in Europe, with a substantial multichannel environment. This report examines the UK’s markets for bundled and convergent services in 2011, including developments in Video-on-Demand, IPTV and VoIP. It also assesses the country’s broadcasting markets, providing statistics and analysis on the closing analogue free-to-air environment and the pay TV and cable sectors.

Key developments:

Regulator shows 53% of households receiving bundled services; News Corp withdraws bid for BSkyB; regulator’s 2010 market data and Q1 2011 update; operator data to June 2011.

Companies covered in this report include:

British Telecom, Virgin Media, BSkyB, Freeview, BBC, Tiscali.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Digital Media
  • 2.1 Overview of digital media
  • 2.2 Key general trends
  • 2.3 Business models – bundled offers
  • 2.4 Regulator issues
    • 2.4.1 Ofcom
    • 2.4.2 Digital Dividend Review
    • 2.4.3 Digital switchover licensing
• 3. Digital TV (DTV)
  • 3.1 Broadband TV (IPTV)
    • 3.1.1 BT Vision
    • 3.1.2 BBC
    • 3.1.3 BSkyB
    • 3.1.4 Virgin Media
    • 3.1.5 Tiscali TV
  • 3.2 Cable TV
    • 3.2.1 Virgin Media
  • 3.3 Satellite TV
    • 3.3.1 BSkyB
    • 3.3.2 Freesat from Sky
    • 3.3.3 freesat from the BBC
  • 3.4 Digital Terrestrial TV
    • 3.4.1 Set-top Boxes (STB)
    • 3.4.2 BBC
    • 3.4.3 Freeview
    • 3.4.4 Virgin Media
  • 3.5 Video-on-Demand (VoD)
    • 3.5.1 Virgin Media
    • 3.5.2 BBC
    • 3.5.3 ITV
    • 3.5.4 Other developments
  • 3.6 VoIP
• 4. Related reports

• Table 1 – Availability of digital services (UK) – 2008 - 2010
• Table 2 – Adoption of services – Q1 2009 - Q1 2011
• Table 3 – Broadcast HD homes by provider – 2006 - 2011
• Table 4 – Proportion of bundled services by type – 2008 - 2011
• Table 5 – Proportion of homes with bundled services by type – Mar 2011
• Table 8 – Pay TV subscriber revenue – 2000 - 2010
• Table 9 – Multichannel take-up in UK households – 2006 - 2011
• Table 10 – Market share of TV homes by platform (primary sets) – 2005 - 2010
• Table 11 – Digital TV uptake, share of main TV sets – 2006 - 2010
• Table 12 – Online TV revenue by sector – 2004 - 2010
• Table 14 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 - 2011
• Table 15 – Virgin Media ARPU – 2007 - 2011
• Table 16 – Virgin Media revenue – 2007 - 2011
• Table 17 – Free-to-view satellite households - 2003 - 2011
• Table 18 – BSkyB subscriber statistics – 2007 - 2011
• Table 19 – BSkyB annualised ARPU – 2005 - 2011
• Exhibit 5 – Digital broadcasting switchover timetable – 2008 – 2012
• Table 22 – Freeview enabled TVs – 2004 - 2009
• Table 23 – Virgin Media VoD use – 2007 - 2010
• Table SEQ Chart 6 – VoIP users as percentage of total Internet subscribers – 2005 - 2012

• Chart 2 – Virgin Media subscribers by sector – 2007 – 2011
• Chart 3 – BSkyB subscriber statistics – 2007 – 2011
• Chart 4 – BSkyB revenue, operating profit and EBITDA – 2007 - 2011
• Chart 5 – DTTV equipment sales – 2006 - 2010

• Exhibit 1 – Overview of digital media
• Exhibit 2 – Operators’ service bundling offers – 2011
• Exhibit 3 – Technology developments in bundled services – 2011
• Exhibit 4 – Snapshot of digital TV services and providers – 2011
• Exhibit 6 – Popular VoIP providers – 2010