The irresistible desire of Europe’s people to be connected

The cable industry is very good at being “the hero of its own story”, as the saying goes. A story of pioneers, investors and innovators.

For customers: an engaging, intelligent TV experience available at competitive prices. In technology terms, the roll-out of Gigasphere proves that there’s a ready-made solution to deliver the gigabit society. For industry and markets: well, the challenger technology, keeping competition strong and product innovation high. Investing, innovating, engaging.

So, yes, we’re definitely the hero of our own story in a constantly changing world.

The drama following the UK vote will make it even more important to keep our focus on investment and innovation. To stay the course in enabling and stimulating growth in our digital society, constantly adapting to disruption, whether it be technological or political.

Digital connectivity, in the end, will transcend any borders. Younger generations, and the digital business community will bring people together even when politics might put up barriers.

Herein lies our opportunity, the irresistible desire of the people of Europe to be connected with faster, better and more extensive digital experiences. That ever-growing appetite, means that this industry will move on whatever disruption we are facing.

A few weeks ago, the European Commission set out a path to digitise European industry, and we’re in the middle of that. The industrial revolution of our time is digital and we are building the gigabit highways to make it happen. It is part of a determined economic and societal shift towards a digitised Europe, where digital services bring speed, quality and innovation to every aspect of our lives.

Another year of strong growth bears out the fact that we’re in a prime position to be the central enabler of a digital society. The latest industry data we announced this morning shows year on year cable revenues up by just over 7%: that’s an increase of 1.5 billion euros. We’ve added over 4 million revenue generating units in the last year.

And yet again, the figures bear out the fact that when a cable home converts to a digital cable home, the appetite for services goes up. The creative, intelligent TV experience is unlocked and a new world of content and services opens up.

But does the fact that we’re succeeding today truly equip us for tomorrow in this disrupting world?

Well, the numbers show that cable’s journey is firmly on track for future needs: from the consumer interface we develop, to the investment in great content, to embracing OTT services as another dimension to the customer experience, we’re all building more customer-centric organisations.

So as the industry engages in Cable Congress over the next three days, here’s my challenge. We will immerse ourselves in the most demanding scenarios, the most thought-provoking debates, we’ll gaze out into the future and yes, we’ll probably indulge ourselves in a little navel-gazing too.

But let’s strike the balance, the blend, which will be the key to future success. It’s this: that we have to have the biggest ambition and the boldest aspiration to deliver Europe’s gigabit future . And we have to do this whilst remembering that all these connections boil down to the individuals who make up the customers, users, clients and viewers.

Let’s be the hero of all their stories, and let’s give them a truly borderless world.