In Europe, DTH platforms continue to perform strongly in the battle against cable television. It is also a pivotal time for many as they look to broaden their service offerings. Here, Satellite News looks at the latest subscriber statistics and examines how well the DTH platforms are performing in Europe.

United Kingdom

For the first time in many quarters, BSkyB showed a dramatic fall in terms of subscriber increases. It still added 62,000 new subscribers between June and September this year but the numbers are falling. For example, between September and December 2003, the operator added close to 200,000 subscribers but is now seeing now finding new subscribers harder to come by. However, the operator remains optimistic. It has stated that it still expects to reach its target of eight million subscribers by the end of 2005, although it is likely to need a couple of big quarters soon in order to manage achieve this goal. Ironically, while 62,000 may seem like a disappointing figure in terms of new subscribers, it actually beat analysts’ expectations. There Predictions were predictions of less than 50,000 subscribers by some analysts such aslike Mike Hilton at UBS, so perhaps the figure is not as bad as it initially first seemed.

The interesting thing objective for BSkyB is now will be to boost penetration for its Private Video Recorder (PVR), Sky+, and its multiroom offer. In terms of penetration of its subscriber base taking one of these services, it is around five percent implying a great deal of growth potential for growth for the operator here. Certainly, new price promotions where that invite new subscribers can to gain a Sky+ box for less than GBP100 ($191.1) could prove attractive. It was only just overJust about 12 months ago that , the Sky+ box was around GBP300 ($573.4), so the offer recently has become a lot more price attractive in recent times.

However, challenging business times lie ahead for Sky+. The Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) offer, Freeview, has now sold around five million set top boxes (STBs) in the United Kingdom. Some are even predicting that it could even overtake BSkyB as the leading digital TV provider in the United Kingdom next year if its rate of sales is continue at this ratesustained. The Freeview service offers around about 30 channels for no monthly charge. after Consumers only pay for installation + and STB costs for customer..

Germnay

German satellite pay-TV operator Premiere has passed the three million subscriber mark, a key milestone. The operator has had a good 12-month period to Sept. 30, adding close to 250,000 subscribers. in the year to September 30th 2004 It had a dip in subscribers between March and June of this year but managed to bounce back with strong growth in the three months until the end of September. The operator has also been busy in other areas. It announced, in conjunction with SES Astra, that it was launching three HD channels in Germany in 2005 and aims to be one of the pioneers of HD services in Europe. Satellite News’ sister publication Inside Digital TV also exclusively broke the story earlier this year that the operator was launching PVR services in Germany (SN, Sept. 15, p.1). It is launching a basic PVR late this year and a more advanced PVR service early next year. The operator could also go public in 2005 signalling a momentous 12 months for the operator.

Italy

Sky Italia continues to be one of the main success stories in pay-TV in Europe throughout the last few months. At the end of September, it had already passed 2.8 million subscribers and since that figure was published, the operator like Premiere in Germany has gone through the three million ssubscriber figure, .like Premiere in Germany. This caps a remarkable rise for the operator. At the end of September 2003, it had 2.3 million subscribers so it has grown its subscriber base grew by around about 25 percent since then and is rapidly becoming the number two satellite pay-TV operation in Europe behind BSkyB. Its rate of growth is also stronger than most of the operators in highlighted in the chart.

France

Unfortunately, at the time of going to press, Satellite News was unable to gain the latest subscriber figures for DTH operators TPS and Canal Satellite. TPS usually only releases figures on a six month basis and Canal Satellite has not released any new figures. Certainly, the onus continues to be on TPS as Canal Satellite has added a great deal more subscribers than its rival in recent times. From the end of June 2003 to June 2004, Canal Satellite had added significantly more subscribers than TPS.

However, there are some interesting issues in the French pay-TV market at the moment. The big issue problem facing both pay-TV operators is the domestic football rights issue. The issue is set to be resolved later this year, and considering the importance of football in terms of driving new subscribers and hanging onto existing ones, the rights could be key in determining the future of both operators. At the moment, both satellite platforms share the rights for covering the French Championship (Le Championnat de France), although Canal Satellite has a more extensive rights package. The new rights package will cover the seasons from 2005 to 2008. There are two different live rights packages available, as well as PPV rights (which are currently shared) and a highlights/magazine package.

Also, with DTT services set to launch in France in early 2005, there will be added competition for the satellite platforms.

Spain AND Portugal

For Digital+ in Spain, the numbers still do not make pleasant reading, although things are likely to change throughout the next few months. The operator had more than 1.8 million subscribers at the end of September 2003. At the same stage this year, it had more than 1.6 million. Satellite pay-TV has yet to have a really huge impact in Spain compared to other markets. Dig-ital+ was formed out the merger be-tween Canal Sat-elite Digital and Via Digital. Digital+ had to pick up a lot of legacy Via Digital subscribers who were paying smaller monthly charges, and consequently as a lot of these subscribers have not renewed their subscriptions to new Digital+ packages, which explains the fall in numbers. However, this pro-cess is now complete and from now on, Digital+ will have no excuses. and next Next year will see a true reflection of how well the operator has performed.

In Portugal, TV Cabo has had a solid year. It has a relatively small subscriber base but is closing in on the 400,000 subscriber mark in Portugal. It added just under 50,000 DTH subscribers in the last 12 months. TV Cabo has more than a million cable pay-TV customers in Portugal.

Nordic Region

In the Nordic region, the two DTH platforms, Canal Digital and Viasat continue to compete rigorously. On the face of it, Canal Digital appears to have had the better of things throughout the last 12 months and now has around 800,000 subscribers across different territories in the region. For Viasat, it has seen steady growth throughout the last 12 months. It has implemented a new Conditional Access (CA) system from NDS having previously had some piracy issues. It hopes the new system will lead to improved subscriber growth throughout the next 12 months. Viasat has made some aggressive initiatives and has launched four new movie channels in the region. It now offers a total of six TV1000 movie channels and it launched two new sports channels earlier this year to try and increase the pressure on Canal Digital.