Norwegian communications regulator Nkom said that Lyse subsidiary Altibox is encroaching on the dominant ISPs and TV providers on the market for collective contract customers, as fibre becomes more widespread. In its 2019 broadband and TV market report, Nkom said the cable TV network had been the main method of supply to housing associations in recent years, and Telenor and Telia Norway/Get had held the largest slices of the pie. The expansion of fibre has now changed that, it said.
On 31 December 2019, the number of private customer subscriptions for fibre boadband or cable TV broadband stood at 1.75 million. Individual subscriptions made up 58 percent of those, with collective agreements, such as with tenancy or housing associations, accounting for the other 42 percent.
In the collective agreement segment, there was growth in both fibre and cable network subscriptions between 2018 and 2019. By contrast, in the individual customer market, there was a drop in cable network subscriptions but a significant upturn in fibre ones.
On the market for collective agreements for broadband, Telenor had a 38.3 percent share of the market and Get held 36.5 percent. Members of the Altibox partnership accounted for 16.7 percent of contracts in this segment. When it came to individual contracts, Altibox had 45.2 percent of the market and Telenor had 24.4 percent.
There were more than 1.55 million contracts for television via fibre or the cable network at the end of 2019, split roughly evenly between the two sub-segments. The number of collective TV subscriptions has changed little in recent years, but the number of individual subscription has gone up. However, the number of cable-TV contracts has dropped in both sub-segments.
When it came to collective TV agreements, Telenor had a 46.1 percent market share in 2019 and Get had a 35.0 percent share. Altibox raised its share year on year to 15.7 percent, whereas Telenor’s and Get’s shares shrank.
Looking at individual TV supply contracts, Altibox accounted for 42.0 percent of subscriptions and Telenor for 27.9 percent. Both providers increased their shares from 2018.
