Dutch cable operator
Ziggo Holding B.V. is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands, providing digital cable television, Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers.[2]
History
The company is the result of the merger between Multikabel, @Home, and Casema and launched officially on 16 May 2008. Later followed by a merger with UPC Nederland in the first quarter of 2015, at that time the second largest cable company in the Netherlands. It kept the brand name Ziggo. Its main competitors are KPN and CanalDigitaal.
Most of the share capital was up to 2012 held by holding companies of two private equity firms: Cinven and Warburg Pincus.[3]
On 21 March 2012, Ziggo was listed on the NYSE Euronext stock exchange and later incorporated into the midcap equity AMX index. Additionally, there are options traded on the Ziggo share.
Cinven and Warburg Pincus started to reduce their stake in Ziggo and exited Ziggo in April 2013.[4][5][6]
In March 2013, Liberty Global acquired a 12.65% stake in Ziggo.[7] This grew to 15% in April and 28.5% in July.[8]
On 27 January 2014, Liberty Global announced that it would be acquiring all remaining shares in Ziggo for € 10 billion.[9] The takeover was subject to regulatory approval and was expected to close by the second quarter of 2014, when Ziggo was expected to merge with UPC Nederland.[10] In May 2014, the European Commission announced opening an in-depth investigation to assess whether the proposed acquisition of Ziggo by Liberty Global is in line with the EU Merger Regulation.[11] The opening of an in-depth inquiry does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. In November 2014, Liberty Global took over Ziggo. In December 2014, the shares of Ziggo N.V. were delisted from Euronext Amsterdam as Ziggo was converted into the Dutch private limited company (besloten vennootschap) Ziggo Holding B.V.[12]
On 5 January 2015, Ziggo started to harmonize its cable network with the UPC Nederland cable network. The name UPC was finally phased out in favor of Ziggo on 13 April 2015.[13]
On 15 February 2016, British telecommunications company Vodafone announced the merger of their Dutch operations Vodafone Netherlands with Liberty Global, the owner of Ziggo.[14][15] The deal was closed on 31 December, creating a new parent company for both Ziggo and Vodafone, called VodafoneZiggo, with a 50/50 joint ownership by Liberty Global and Vodafone.[16][17][18]
Cable television
In 2014 the Ziggo hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network passed 7.140 million homes in the Netherlands.[19] In 2020 it consisted of 40,350 km (25,072 mi) of fiber-optic cables that transported 97% of the total data volume in the network. The final 3%, averaging the last 300 m (328 yd) from the neighborhood's hubsite optical node to the final customer connection, are transported by 412,600 km (256,378 mi) of coaxial cables.[20][21]
As of December 2017[update], Ziggo has 3.916 million cable television subscribers.[19]
Technology
The digital television signal is transmitted in the DVB-C standard. The high-definition channels are encoded in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and most standard-definition channels are encoded in MPEG-4. Only the free-to-cable standard-definition channels are still encoded in MPEG-2. Customers can buy or rent a certified set-top box or Integrated Digital Television with embedded CA. Additionally customers can buy any television or set-top box with a DVB-C tuner for the free-to-cable basic subscription and optionally included by CI+ support with a Ziggo compatible conditional-access module for supplemental packages. As of 2015, Ziggo uses both the Nagravision and Irdeto conditional access system.
Previously, Ziggo also offered an analogue television signal. Between 2018 and 2021, it gradually phased out the analogue signal.[22][23]
In the course of 2021 the analogue FM radio signal will be gradually phased out.[24][25] Before and after 2021 radio was and will be provided by a DVB-C signal. For customers who are not able to receive this digital radio signal Ziggo offers a digital radio receiver for €50 as an alternative for analogue FM cable radio reception equipment.[26]
Channels
Ziggo provides about 200 television channels and more than 100 radio channels,[27] DVR service, video-on-demand content, catch-up TV from public television broadcasters and commercial television stations and interactive television. About 40 TV channels and 40 radio channels are transmitted in clear, while most premium channels are transmitted encrypted.[28]
Basic service is called Kabel TV[29] and consists of about 40 digital television channels (including 5 HD), as well as 40 digital and analogue radio channels. It consists of all the major Dutch networks and some of the main networks of neighbouring countries. Additional TV and radio channels are available through "TV Standard", "Movies & Series XL" and premium packages. Every additional package comes with Xite Music which offers 40 additional radio channels, as well as interactive video on demand services.
Ziggo offers about 55 HD channels including National Geographic HD, Discovery HD & History HD.[28] Also including premium film and sport services such as Film1 HD, ESPN HD and Ziggo Sport Totaal HD. The rest are part of basic service.
On 4 July 2009 the Dutch public broadcaster NPO started simulcasting NPO 1, NPO 2, and NPO 3 in 1080i high-definition.[30] These public HD channels are part of basic service.
Ziggo GO
Ziggo GO is an online television service from Ziggo. The service allows users to watch live TV and on demand video content from a PC, laptop, tablet and mobile phone. It is also possible to stream live TV on Chromecast and Apple TV. The service was introduced by UPC in 2012. It was named Horizon TV app or Horizon GO.[31] The service was renamed by Ziggo GO on 9 November 2016.[32]
HBO 1/2/3 closed on 31 December 2016 in The Netherlands. Since then, all HBO content is available on Ziggo GO.[33]
Internet
As of December 2017[update], Ziggo has 3.240 million Internet access subscribers.[19]
The EuroDOCSIS 3.0 standard is used to offer Internet access with download speeds of up to 500 Mbit/s.[34]
On 10 October 2019 Ziggo started the deployment of EuroDOCSIS 3.1 in limited regions. This enabled download speeds up to 1 Gbit/s.[35]
Telephony
As of December 2017[update], Ziggo has 2.551 million subscribers to their land-line telephone services.[19] It also offered a virtual mobile phone service. Ziggo Mobile stopped offering new subscriptions in April 2017,[36] and existing customers were migrated to Vodafone Netherlands in September 2017.[37]
Triple play
As of December 2017[update], 64.7% of subscribers have a triple play subscription: a cable television, internet and telephone service bundle.[19]
€ 1,564.8 million (2013)[1]
