UK’s TV Market Past, Present and Future, Fixed Broadband Subscribers in Q4 2021: FTTH/B claiming 62% of the global total, Superfast and ultrafast broadband UK premises passed as of end-Apr 2022, plus ISP, government, and Ofcom updates.
In March 2022, Point Topic and Netgem commissioned YouGov to conduct a survey on video, ISPs and what channels people were watching. The report, published on 9 May, revealed that the digital TV landscape has shifted significantly toward online channels, but the market is congested with choice and can result in a fragmented experience for the user. Streamlining of services will result in a changing landscape for the streaming giants, as consumers seek out curated services available via their ISPs. Whereas a wide range of choice was considered a selling point in recent years, consolidation of affordable content services will be the step-change in the marketplace in the near future.
On 19 May Point Topic released their global fixed broadband connections analysis for Q4 2021. The number of global fixed broadband connections grew by 1.5% and stood at 1.27bn (Figure 1). The share of FTTH/B in the total fixed broadband subscriptions continued to increase and stood at 62.5 per cent. Superfast and ultrafast cable broadband connections followed with an 18% share. Between Q4 2021 and Q4 2020, the number of copper lines fell by 10.9%, while FTTH/FTTB connections increased by 13.6 per cent. The highest FTTH/B broadband growth rates were mainly in developing markets, with the UK, France, Italy and Germany also reporting significant quarterly growth.
Point Topic released on 27 May, their bi-monthly update on superfast and ultrafast broadband deployments in the UK as of the end-April 2022. In 34% of all UK local authorities the FTTP coverage was still lower than 20% of premises (Figure 2). It was 50% or higher in 17% of local authorities. Just over 200,000 premises had access to two or more independent fibre networks. In total, independent FTTP networks passed 3.8 million premises. Fourteen local authorities had overlapping networks from three independent fibre network operators, while 109 local authorities had two independent fibre networks intersecting. At the end of April 2022, the total FTTP coverage including Openreach, KCOM, Virgin Media RFOG and independent fibre networks was 10.8 million premises (34% of the UK premises). Virgin Media O2 passed 49% of UK premises with their gigabit network. Of course, FTTP and VMO2’s Docsis 3.1 gigabit networks overlap in multiple areas.
Key findings and overviews can be found below and on our free analysis section with detailed reports available via our UK Plus subscribers service, sign-in here to access our UK Plus content.
Other Key Players Announcements
News Round-up
BT Group News
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) News
CityFibre (CF) News
Independent Operators (AltNets) News
Other Key News Items Throughout the Month
Policies, Studies, Survey and Ofcom Announcements
Devolved Nations (Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) Broadband Announcements
Mobile Broadband Announcements
Other
The data used in this report is taken from Point Topic’s UK Plus service that allows customers to receive comprehensive, accurate and regularly updated broadband market information to support strategic decision making.
Please telephone +44 (0)20 3301 3303 or e-mail isabelle.anderson@point-topic.com for more details.
If you are a subscriber to UK Plus, sign-in here to access our UK Plus content where you can view our updated Q1 2022 profiles of the UK’s leading internet service providers, as well as our annual overview of the country’s broadband market.
Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about UK Plus or these particular publications.