Dutch pay-TV market decline to accelerate in 2018

The number of connections on the Dutch television market fell by 0.1 percent in 2017 to 7.48 million, according to a report from Telecompaper about the Dutch television market in Q4, 2017.
Growth in IPTV via DSL and fibre was not able to offset the decline in traditional TV broadcasting (cable, satellite and DTT platform Digitenne). For 2018, Telecompaper expects a decrease of 1 percent in the number of connections.
Despite a 1.8 percent decline, cable was still the largest television technology with 56 percent of all connections. DSL (copper) followed at number two with almost 21 percent, after a 6.4 percent growth in connections. Fibre came in at number three with 15.6 percent. Both satellite and Digitenne (KPN) had a market share of less than 5 percent in Q4r, with satellite slightly larger than Digitenne.
For 2018, Telecompaper expects TV connections to fall by 1 percent. The accelerated decline will be partly caused by the expansion of analogue cable television Ziggo and Delta will start this year. In addition, the influence of cord-nevers and cord cutters, which watch TV and video via the internet, is on the up. For 2018-2022 Telecompaper expects a decrease of an average of 0.8 percent per year in TV connections.
Revenues from TV services grew by 2.4 percent to EUR1.81 billion in 2017, partly due to price increases on triple play packages from KPN and Ziggo in July 2017. For the coming years, Telecompaper expects revenues to continue growing in 2018 and 2019, but then start declining from 2020. As a result, the expected average growth is 0 percent for the years up to and including 2022.
Ziggo is the largest, but KPN catching up
Ziggo remained the largest provider in terms of TV connections and sales, but its market shares shrank in 2017. With TV connections, Ziggo’s market share slipped 0.7 percentage points to 52.4 percent while KPN at number two, had its market share lift 0.8 percentage points to 31.8 percent. Ziggo’s market share for TV sales was 59.8 percent for 2017, down 1 percentage point compared to 2016. KPN grew by 1 percentage point to 27 percent.
Making up the top five in terms of TV connection number was Caiway, T-Mobile Netherlands and Tele2 Netherlands, with the first two gaining market share in Q4.