BLOG — Feb 14, 2025
Focus on fixed+mobile bundles as triple-, quad-play trend down in Western Europe
Highlights
- Triple-play and quad-play bundle adoption fell in eight out of 13 Western European countries in 2023.
- In Belgium, bundle penetration fell for the first time since 2019, following several years of regulator action to tackle high prices in the country.
- In 2023, 11 out of 17 operators saw growth in the share of broadband customers adopting fixed-mobile convergent bundles.
Out of the 13 Western Europe markets with regulator-reported data on bundled telecommunications services, eight saw a drop in triple-play and quad-play shares of total bundled subscriptions in 2023 compared to 2022. Despite this decline, fixed-mobile convergent bundles continued to rise as consumers cut the cord on legacy services to focus on connectivity. In 2023, 11 out of 17 operators with reported data saw growth in the percentage of broadband customers also subscribing to mobile services.
European household penetration of bundled subscriptions, 2023 (%)
Data as of November 2024,
Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan estimates; industry regulators. © 2025 S&P Global
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Multiplay offers remained popular in many Western European markets, and adoption continued to grow in countries with high bundle penetration such as Portugal, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and France. However, in Belgium, bundle penetration fell for the first time since 2019, following several years of regulator action to tackle high prices in the country.
In 2018, the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) imposed open network obligations on operators deemed as having significant market power, including Proximus, Telenet Group Holding NV and VOO; the latter was acquired by Orange Belgium SA in 2023. Despite this, according to the regulator's most recent report, based on October 2023 prices, Belgium is one of the most expensive telecom markets among neighboring countries, especially in larger bundles, which account for 76.5% of total bundle subscribers.
Data as of November 2024
*Excluding mobile-only bundles, where reported.
**Ireland reports triple-play and quad-play together.
Sources: S&P Global Market intelligence Kagan estimates, industry regulators.
@20245&P Global.
Another BIPT report from April 2024 showed that prices for fixed-only and convergent triple-play bundles in Belgium increased from 2019 to 2024, while stand-alone broadband and fixed-mobile dual-play bundles became more affordable over the past five years. The regulator attributed this to competitive pressures as the Belgian market has seven players in the fixed broadband segment, such as Mobile Vikings, Scarlet and Hey!, while there are only three convergent operators.
It is therefore unsurprising that quad-play bundle subscriptions in Belgium fell 4.3% in 2023 and triple-play dropped 2.3%, while dual-play bundles grew 6.3% year over year as customers increasingly dropped legacy services such as fixed voice and multichannel and operators pushed fixed-mobile connectivity. According to the regulator, bundles with mobile services were the only ones to grow in 2023, up 4.8% year over year, while fixed telephony fell 8.7% and television bundles dropped 3.6%. Even fixed broadband bundles saw a slight drop (0.8%) for the first time in 2023 as stand-alone broadband adoption in Belgium grew 7.8%.
The market is an example of a larger trend across the region, where the share of triple- and quad-play bundles has also been on the decline in Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark. In 2023, Germany and Austria also saw a drop in the share of triple- and quad-play bundles for the first time since 2019, while in Sweden, where these bundles have historically had low take-up, subscriptions fell 1.7% in 2023. In Switzerland, which has yet to report data for 2023, triple- and quad-play adoption had already declined in 2022. This is to be expected as fixed telephones become obsolete and pay TV services are replaced by streaming by customers and by operators integrating over-the-top video services into their offers and platforms.
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While full-service bundles were on the decline, the share of convergent bundles with both fixed and mobile services — whether double-, triple- or quad-play — continued to grow in six of the eight markets that report data. Only in markets where fixed-mobile bundles are less common, in Germany and Denmark, did the proportion of convergent bundles fall in 2023. In France, where the share of convergent bundles is not reported, the number of SIM cards bundled with fixed services grew 6.5% year over year.
This trend is also evident among individual operators across the region, which increasingly report fixed-mobile convergence data as a key measure for operational performance. Out of the 17 operators with reported data in 2023, 11 increased the percentage of fixed broadband customers adopting convergent bundles compared to 2022. Belgium's Telenet saw the largest increase since 2019, jumping 16.4 percentage points to 49.3% of its fixed broadband subscriber base, while competitor Orange saw its fixed-mobile convergence take-up rate fall 5.4 percentage points from 2019 to 2022 before dropping a further 17.5 percentage points to 62.0% following its acquisition of cable operator VOO, which did not offer mobile services.
Global Multichannel is a regular feature from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.