What you need to know
The value of the bundled communications market continues to grow steadily and 88% of people now have some form of communications bundle. The market growth is driven by pay-TV and internet services, as more people are making the switch over to superfast internet to match their more demanding internet requirements. Mintel forecasts that the market will continue its upward trend over the next five years, growing by 18% in value to reach £23.5 billion in 2020.
As telephony margins continue to fall, the convergence of bundle services is becoming the focus for providers. 2016 is the year that all of the big four providers are expected to offer mobile services as they look to push the quad-play bundle option. Mintel’s consumer research shows that currently only 11% of people have a quad-play bundle; a figure which providers will be hoping will increase significantly over the coming years.
Boosting the number of those with quad-play bundles lies in helping people to understand the potential rewards of having all services from one provider. Using detailed personal data to create customised quad-play options that match the habits of each customer, could be the best way to convince people of the monetary and practical benefits.
Products covered in this report
For the purposes of this report, Mintel has used the following definitions:
This report looks at the sale and provision of telecommunication products to consumers.
Telecommunication products include fixed-line telephony, mobile telephony, internet and television. Individually these are known as “services”.
When these services are augmented with optional or necessary add-ons, they are referred to as a package. For example, “a landline and internet package”, or “a sports channel add-on was available, increasing the cost of the total TV package”.
When two or more services are sold to a consumer by the same provider at the same time, they are referred to as a bundle. Specifically, two services sold at the same time is a dual-play bundle, three services sold at the same time are a triple-play bundle, and four services sold at the same time are a quad-play bundle.
Companies that provide services, packages or bundles of products to consumers are interchangeably called “operators”, “telcos” or “providers” throughout the report.
The market size for this report refers to the value of operator revenue for the three fixed-line products typically bundled into triple-play deals: fixed-line phone services, pay-TV and internet. These numbers are sourced from Ofcom.
The “big four”, when referenced to as such, refer to BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.
Services like Netflix are referred to as over-the-top media: video or audio content delivered over the internet by a third party, carried down to the consumer’s home by a provider, but free of control from it.
