Cable and Satellite Television Industry 2007

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Highlights

1. The number of subscribers to the main services provided by cable operators—television, Internet access and telephony—reached 14.2 million as of August 31, 2007, or 1.6 million more than on the same date in 2006. This is the largest ever year-over-year net gain of subscribers for the industry.

1. This strong growth in subscriptions is in good part the result of the industry’s rapid penetration of the telephony market. More than half of new clients were recruited in that market.

1. The cable industry continued to broaden the footprint of its telephony services. The number of potential customers increased from 8.4 million in 2006 to 10.1 million in 2007. This represents 80.3% of homes with cable access.

1. Canadian households and businesses also continued to connect to cable Internet in large numbers, although at a slower pace than in the past. The number of subscribers to such services rose from 4.0 million in 2006 to 4.5 million in 2007, a 12.5% increase.

1. Growth in the traditional niche of television services has been much more modest. The cable industry nonetheless experienced a net increase of close to 127,000 subscribers, the second best result since the beginning of the decade after that posted in 2006. For the first time in ten years, cable companies maintained their share of the market.

1. The advent of large numbers of customers to the Internet and telephony niches has led to considerable changes in the structure of the cable industry's operating revenues within a relatively short period of time. Subscription revenues from non-traditional services accounted for 39.4% of all subscription revenues for the industry in 2007, as compared with 24.3% in 2003 and 3.8% in 1999.