UK Market Scope

Europe’s Fastest Growing Digital Market

ASTRA reaches 99% of the satellite and cable market in the UK and Ireland - a total of 8.5 million households have access to digital services via the ASTRA satellites at 28.2° east.

Sky has 8.1m subscriberss in the UK and Ireland, equivalent to almost one in three homes. Around 1.3 million households have a Sky+ personal video recorder, there are 906,000 multi-room customers and 5,498,000 digital subscribers.

There are over 530 TV and radio channels on the Sky platform and to make it easy for viewers to find what they want to watch, Sky’s electronic programme guide is divided into 15 genres.

Mediatique research shows that the value of the interactive TV market in the UK will rise from £890 million a year to £2 billion in the next three years.

Key Note research predicts that by 2008 a shade under 60% of households will subscribe to pay-TV services.

According to TNS Media Research, an average of just 44% percent of cable subscribers are committed to their provider, compared to 75% for satellite customers.

A report by International Marketing Reports forecasts that pay TV revenues in Europe will reach €77 billion by 2008. The report also says that:

• Although part of the growth will be due to increasing subscriptions, a significant portion of the 2008 revenues (around £20 billion) will be due to increasing levels of T-commerce such as shopping, direct response TV and interactive applications.
• The UK will take the largest share of this pay-TV market with revenues of around £14 billion.
• Pay TV penetration in Britain will increase to 58% of homes – very close to the figure forecast by Key Note’s research.

The Satellite and Cable Broadcasters’ Group says that:

• On average, digital pay TV channels are watched more and for longer than terrestrial channels.
• Digital pay services are watched by 43% of 15 to 34-year-olds compared to only 27% in terrestrial-only homes.

Over 2m HDTV-ready televisions have been sold in Europe in less than a year and the UK is one of the top three countries for sales volumes.