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.
History The company is the result of the merger between , @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.
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.Cinven and Warburg Pincus plan to further reduce stake in Ziggo N.V.Cinven and Warburg Pincus have further reduced stake in Ziggo N.V.
In March 2013, Liberty Global acquired a 12.65% stake in Ziggo. This grew to 15% in April and 28.5% in July.
On 27 January 2014, Liberty Global announced that it would be acquiring all remaining shares in Ziggo for €10 billion. 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. 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. 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.Ziggo completes delisting and converts to a Dutch private limited company
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.
On 15 February 2016, British telecommunications company Vodafone announced the merger of their Dutch operations Vodafone Netherlands with Liberty Global, the owner of Ziggo. 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 Ziggo and Vodafone.
Network structure In 2014 the Ziggo hybrid fiber-coaxial cable network (a broadband network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable) passed 7.140 million homes in the Netherlands. In 2020 it consisted of of fiber-optic cables that transported 97% of the total data volume in the network. The final 3%, averaging the last from the neighborhood's hubsite optical node to the final customer connection, are transported by of coaxial cables. In the early 2020s the Ziggo network consist of:Ziggo network scheme The national main fiber network. This is a ring network with 2 national data centers and the fiber-optic segment trunk backbone. Regional Center (RC) The RC is a coupling point between the national main fiber network and a regional fiber network (also a ring network). There are 66 RCs. Local Center (LC) The LC is the coupling point between the regional fiber network and the local fiber network. There are 600 LCs. District Center (DC) The District or Neighborhood Center is a tapping point of the local fiber network and contains the two-way fiber to coaxial conversion hardware to the Group Amplifier (GA) (Caxial Group Amplifier). Ziggo manages 12,000 GAs as coaxial segment trunks. Each GA feeds a small number of Power Amplifiers (PA) (Coaxial Power Amplifiers). Ziggo manages 70,000 PAs. Behind the PAs we find the Multitap in streets and larger buildings, which distributes the signal from the PA to a group of Subscriber Takeover Points (STP) final customer connection points. A PA and a multitap are often combined in a street cabinet. Ziggo manages approximately 7,300,000 STPs.
Cable television and radio Technology
Television signal DVB-C The digital television signal is transmitted in the Digital Video Broadcasting-Cable (DVB-C) standard in 256-QAM modulation mode. According to measurements the bit rates of the offered digital television channels vary, and many television channels have a variable bit rate (VBR).Digital TV Radio scanning and measurement Netherlands Cable Ziggo The high-definition channels are encoded in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and most standard-definition channels are encoded in MPEG-4. Only a part of 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.
Cable television via DVB-C is a service with which Ziggo can distinguish itself, as DVB-C linear television distribution is not available in Ziggy's service area from competing all-fiber-optics providers, who opted for Internet Protocol television (IPTV) instead of DVB-C. Despite this, the phasing out and end of DVB-C is inevitable, due to Ziggo's intended future switch to more capable DOCSIS 4 cable internet technology.
2024 partial DVB-C shutdown Ziggo opted to start the phasing out of DVB-C cautiously. In July 2024 the DVB-C television distribution of the Hindi, Turkish, Arabic and Gay Lifestyle subscription packages ended. In June 2024 Ziggo offered these subscribers to switch to their Next Mini 4K rent decoder to continue watching these packages, if their decoding hardware is unsuitable for IPTV-only content delivery. Ziggo stated there is no plan yet to make more television channels IPTV-only after this partial DVB-C shutdown.
IPTV In 2022 Internet Protocol television (IPTV) was introduced by Ziggo for delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. For this the Next Mini decoder was introduced as standard television receiver for customers that also have an internet subscription. This IPTV-only television decoder is similar to the Liberty Global Mini TV BoxLiberty Global Mini TV Box and makes all television content visible via IPTV. The Next Mini is connected with the Ziggo network via Ethernet wiring or wireless via Wi-Fi. The number of television channels and other IP-stream content that can be viewed with IPTV hardware over a coax cable or fibre-optic cable based high-speed internet connection within a household is virtually unlimited. Practically, the provider determines which television channels and other content IP-streams are forwarded or not. Speculation is circulating on the internet that Ziggo introduced IPTV to make it easier for customers of competing combined high-speed internet and IPTV services providers, to switch to Ziggo or that DVB-C will be switched off in the future. , new Ziggo television customers will always receive a Next Mini IPTV-only television decoder and Ziggo introduced their first IPTV-only channels.
Television viewers with a high-speed internet connection can opt to no longer use their provider's loan decoder, but an app for the online platform. To view television content, a Ziggo TV App is available for customers that poses Apple TV or Android TV mediaplayers or Amazon Fire TV Sticks. In 2023 speculations appeared that Ziggo might be preparing to transfer the distribution of television content to IPTV at an unknown moment in the future. For viewers who do not like additional IPTV hardware devices and remote controls, apps for smart television platforms are under development. In June 2024 the apps for post 2019 Samsung Smart TVs with the Tizen operating system and LG smart TVs with the WebOS 5.0 or higher operating system were released. The development and implementation of online and smart TV platform apps could nix the additional hardware for customers that (can) use their internet subscription to view television content and can promote a future transition from DVB-C to IPTV.
Previously, Ziggo also offered an analogue television signal. Between 2018 and 2021, it gradually phased out the analogue signal.
Radio signal The digital radio signal is transmitted in the DVB-C standard. For digital radio a 2-channel (stereo) MPEG-1 Audio Layer II encoded digital audio broadcasting signal at 48 kHz audio sampling rate is used. According to measurements the bit rates of the offered digital radio channels vary, and some radio channels have a variable bit rate (VBR).Digital TV Radio scanning and measurement Netherlands Cable Ziggo The used lossy audio format is designed to provide high quality at about 192 kbit/s and higher bit rates for stereo sound signals.Audio Standard: MPEG-2 Part number: 3 A company spokesperson stated Ziggo passes the digital radio stations to its end users as provided by the radio channels and does not re-encode, change or edit these digital signals to avoid quality reduction. In May 2024 Ziggo introduced 2-channel (stereo) Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) at 160 kbit/s encoded digital radio transmissions on a limited scale. Compared to MPEG-1 Audio Layer II, the AAC audio coding format requires less bandwidth to achieve the same sound quality. Disadvantages of using AAC are its non-open and free format, and it is not supported by some (older and cheaper) receiving devices.
Previously, Ziggo also offered an analogue radio signal. Between February 2021 and March 2022 the analogue FM cable radio signal was gradually phased out. According to TVTotaal the analogue FM cable radio service was terminated because due to competitive pressure Ziggo needed the bandwidth to increase the upload speed of the internet service. According to VodafoneZiggo; "The freed-up bandwidth allows us to offer even more television and internet services, such as increasing image quality and adding apps." and "We continue to innovate and look ahead, so that our GigaNet (internet service) grows with the needs of our customers. The complete switch to digital radio is a crucial part of that." For customers who are not able to receive the digital radio signal, Ziggo up to 29 May 2022 offered a digital radio receiver for €50 as an alternative for analogue FM cable radio reception equipment.
Channels Ziggo provides about 200 linear television channels and more than 100 linear radio channels, 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.
Basic service is called Kabel TV and consists of about 40 digital television channels, 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.
On 4 July 2009 the Dutch public broadcaster NPO started simulcasting NPO 1, NPO 2, and NPO 3 in 1080i high-definition. These public HD channels are part of basic service.