Submitted by: Submitted by Chris400
Views: 201
Words: 2085
Pages: 9
Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 10/21/2012 04:07 PM
1.
The Hungarian cable industry has a number of very attractive features. First and foremost, the market has
experienced rapid growth over the previous years and exhibit 23.4 shows that double digit growth is projected to continue until 2011. This growth comes on the back of the opening up of the Hungarian economy. Under the socialist regime, there was minimum TV channel choice (see Exhibit 23.3) and, following the fall of the regime, the Hungarian people have welcomed the choice offered by the multiplicity of channels. Thus, although the total market size is capped by the number of Hungarian households/TV households (which is experiencing only slow growth), even at the end of 2003 there is still huge potential for growth in the market as the number of homes passed by cable increases as a percentage of TV households and as the ratio of subscribers to homes passed also increases. Of course, investment is needed to increase the number of homes passed by cable and such investment is costly.
However, since the Hungarian government continues to subsidise capital requirements for installation of cable networks in new‐build apartment blocs, the number of homes passed by cable – and thus the potential market for the cable industry – will continue to rise and the operators need not even incur the cost of such expansion. Furthermore, the ratio of subscribers to homes passed can also be expected to rise as the annual disposable income is expected to grow significantly (from $46,861 in 2004 to $62,966 in 2008) making cable TV more affordable for a greater percentage of the population. Secondly, cable TV has established itself as the dominant multichannel platform in Hungary. While one might
expect digital TV and/or satellite TV to pose significant threats to the dominant position of the cable industry, the more ...