Cable operators in Germany stay with analogue

Website: Rapid TV News

HDTV, Video-on-Demand and the possibility to make internet content and applications available on TV sets using hybrid technology open up plenty of new revenue sources for the cable industry.

However, cable operators see no necessity to terminate analogue TV carriage which is planned for the German DTH market on Apr 30 2012.

These are the main results of the fifth leadership summit which industry association Cable Holding recently held in Luxembourg.

At the conference, leading executives of the cable industry discussed current issues in the digital media market with experts from politics, media and financial world.

HDTV is seen by the industry as the most significant driving force behind digitalisation of German TV households, confirmed Harald Rösch, CEO of cable operator Kabel BW, and Andreas Siemen, director of corporate development at Kabel Deutschland.

An important role is played by HD digital recorders which cable companies currently offer their customers at favourable conditions to convince them of the advantages of digital television.

Also, 3DTV could push digitalisation in the medium-term, the executives agreed.

Less important for consumers would be the expansion of the channel line-up as cable would already offer a broad variety.

In contrast to DTH satellite reception, an analogue TV switch-off in cable networks would neither be necessary nor desired by cable customers, the executives claimed.

As the main reasons network operators point to long-term contracts with the housing industry for provision of analogue cable television and the increasing number of second and third TV sets in households.