UPC Nederland (English: UPC Netherlands ) was the second largest cable operator in the Netherlands , providing cable television (digital and analogue), broadband Internet , and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers.
94-650: In early 2015, UPC Nederland started merging with Ziggo . The name UPC was finally phased out in favor of Ziggo on 13 April 2015. UPC Nederland was formed in 1995 as a joint venture between the Philips Electronics and United International Holdings , a United States -owned media company, setting off on a path of quick acquisition of the Netherlands' then mostly regional TV cable operators, many of whom were already partially owned by Philips. The South-Eastern and Eastern cable networks were unified under
188-461: 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
282-485: A router on board. There were about 30 analogue television channels and about 40 analogue radio channels available. UPC Nederland was in 2008 the first cable company in Europe to be using the new EuroDOCSIS 3.0 cable standard. This new standard made it possible to achieve speeds comparable to fiber, up to 120 Mbit/s . As of July 2014, UPC offered the following subscription forms: Internet subscriptions included
376-585: A Basic Cable TV and Radio (both analog and digital) subscription. Ziggo Ziggo Holding B.V. ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈzɪɡoː] or [ˈzɪɣoː] ) is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands , providing digital cable television , Internet , and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers. The company is the result of the merger between Multikabel [ nl ] , @Home , and Casema and launched officially on 16 May 2008. Later followed by
470-405: A dedicated analog circuit-switched service. Other advantages include better voice quality and integration to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network providing cheap or unlimited nationwide and international calling. In many cases, digital cable telephone service is separate from cable modem service being offered by many cable companies and does not rely on Internet Protocol (IP) traffic or
564-436: A given location, cable distribution lines must be available on the local utility poles or underground utility lines. Coaxial cable brings the signal to the customer's building through a service drop , an overhead or underground cable. If the subscriber's building does not have a cable service drop, the cable company will install one. The standard cable used in the U.S. is RG-6 , which has a 75 ohm impedance , and connects with
658-543: A high elevation. At the outset, cable systems only served smaller communities without television stations of their own, and which could not easily receive signals from stations in cities because of distance or hilly terrain. In Canada, however, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Rarely, as in the college town of Alfred, New York , U.S. cable systems retransmitted Canadian channels. Although early ( VHF ) television receivers could receive 12 channels (2–13),
752-466: A higher rate. At the local headend, the feed signals from the individual television channels are received by dish antennas from communication satellites . Additional local channels, such as local broadcast television stations, educational channels from local colleges, and community access channels devoted to local governments ( PEG channels) are usually included on the cable service. Commercial advertisements for local business are also inserted in
846-600: A hundred completely new homes to be built. The FFTH offered asymmetric internet services by Ziggo are identical to their non-FFTH asymmetric offerings. In November 2023 Ziggo announced their approach for a planned switch from hybrid fiber-coaxial to a FFTH signal supply for the municipal cable network of Edam-Volendam , whilst holding on by RFoG signal converters at the Subscriber Takeover Points (STP) to DOCSIS and DVB-C technology. As of 2024 this municipal controlled all-fiber-optics FFTH network replaces
940-526: A joint venture with Buena Vista International Television and Sony Pictures Entertainment between 2000 and 2005. On 27 January 2014 Liberty Global announced that it would acquire 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 Ziggo Holding B.V. (Besloten Vennootschap), owned by Liberty Global. On 5 January 2015 Ziggo started to harmonize its cable network with
1034-409: A larger dynamic range. Ziggo GO is an online television service (an over-the-top (OTT) media 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 television on Chromecast and Apple TV . The service was introduced by UPC in 2012. It was named Horizon TV app or Horizon GO. The service
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#17327986524361128-405: A local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be a priority, but technology allowed low-priority signals to be placed on such channels by synchronizing their blanking intervals . TVs were unable to reconcile these blanking intervals and the slight changes due to travel through a medium, causing ghosting . The bandwidth of the amplifiers also
1222-508: 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
1316-463: A microwave-based system, may be used instead. Coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional carriage of signals as well as the transmission of large amounts of data . Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as cable internet , cable telephony and wireless services, using both unlicensed and licensed spectra. Broadband internet access
1410-564: A rarity, found in an ever-dwindling number of markets. Analog television sets are accommodated, their tuners mostly obsolete and dependent entirely on the set-top box. Cable television is mostly available in North America , Europe , Australia , Asia and South America . Cable television has had little success in Africa , as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas. Multichannel multipoint distribution service ,
1504-455: A receiver box. The cable company will provide set-top boxes based on the level of service a customer purchases, from basic set-top boxes with a standard-definition picture connected through the standard coaxial connection on the TV, to high-definition wireless digital video recorder (DVR) receivers connected via HDMI or component . Older analog television sets are cable ready and can receive
1598-766: A series of signal amplifiers and line extenders. These devices carry the signal to customers via passive RF devices called taps. The very first cable networks were operated locally, notably in 1936 by Rediffusion in London in the United Kingdom and the same year in Berlin in Germany, notably for the Olympic Games , and from 1948 onwards in the United States and Switzerland. This type of local cable network
1692-446: A single-fiber passive optical network (PON). In the projects where Ziggo opts to extend the fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FFTN) into the customer's (new-build) home, significant additional construction costs like earthwork are avoided and a RFoG fiber to coax converter is still present. This ensures customers can continue to use their existing equipment. One can expect FTTH connections at larger post 2021 construction locations, with more than
1786-417: A special telephone interface at the customer's premises that converts the analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring into a digital signal, which is then sent on the local loop (replacing the analog last mile , or plain old telephone service (POTS) to the company's switching center, where it is connected to the public switched telephone network ( PSTN ). The biggest obstacle to cable telephone service
1880-605: A type F connector . The cable company's portion of the wiring usually ends at a distribution box on the building exterior, and built-in cable wiring in the walls usually distributes the signal to jacks in different rooms to which televisions are connected. Multiple cables to different rooms are split off the incoming cable with a small device called a splitter . There are two standards for cable television; older analog cable, and newer digital cable which can carry data signals used by digital television receivers such as high-definition television (HDTV) equipment. All cable companies in
1974-806: A virtual mobile phone service. Ziggo Mobile stopped offering new mobile subscriptions in April 2017, and existing mobile customers were migrated to Vodafone Netherlands in September 2017. As of December 2017 , 64.7% of subscribers have a triple play subscription: a cable television, internet and telephone service bundle. At the end of 2020, the company provided at least one service to more than 3,836,300 households: 3,831,300 households with television, 3,363,500 households with an internet connection and 2,272,800 households with telephony . It then had 5,189,800 mobile subscribers (4,757,100 postpaid and 432,700 prepaid). In 2023, there were about 8,300,000 households in
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#17327986524362068-422: Is achieved over coaxial cable by using cable modems to convert the network data into a type of digital signal that can be transferred over coaxial cable. One problem with some cable systems is the older amplifiers placed along the cable routes are unidirectional thus in order to allow for uploading of data the customer would need to use an analog telephone modem to provide for the upstream connection. This limited
2162-504: 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
2256-681: 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
2350-544: Is preparing for DOCSIS 4.0 (previously branded as DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex) tests in early 2023. Besides increased download speeds, DOCSIS 3.1 and especially DOCSIS 4.0 also technically enable significant increases in upload speeds. In 2022 Ziggo introduced the Sagemcom F3896LG-ZG/F@st 3896 DOCSIS 3.1 Full Duplex capable modem featuring a 2.5 Gbit/s Ethernet port that can deliver up to 5 Gbit/s download and 2 Gbit/s upload speeds. In May 2023
2444-482: Is the need for nearly 100% reliable service for emergency calls. One of the standards available for digital cable telephony, PacketCable , seems to be the most promising and able to work with the quality of service (QOS) demands of traditional analog plain old telephone service (POTS) service. The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than
2538-535: Is the technical condition of the coaxial network. In large parts of the service area, the coaxial cables used between the street cabinets and the approximately 7,300,000 Subscriber Takeover Points (STP) final customer connection points are decades old. In some areas, these old cables have exceeded their maximum lifespan specifications. This has consequences for the services provided in the future. Coaxial cables that are no longer in optimal condition suffer from rapidly increasing attenuation above ~1 GHz. In October 2023
2632-542: 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). 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
2726-538: Is used by many cable television operators to provide cable internet access over hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructure. As Ziggo is a European operator, the used DOCSIS standards earlier than DOCSIS 3.1 were modified for use in Europe (EuroDOCSIS). As of December 2017 , Ziggo had 3.240 million Internet access subscribers and 3,328 million subscribers in December 2022, which means that 45.1% of the homes passed paid Ziggo for internet access. On 10 October 2019 Ziggo started
2820-606: Is used in the US for cable television and originally stood for community antenna television , from cable television's origins in 1948; in areas where over-the-air TV reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. In 1968, 6.4% of Americans had cable television. The number increased to 7.5% in 1978. By 1988, 52.8% of all households were using cable. The number further increased to 62.4% in 1994. To receive cable television at
2914-399: 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). The used lossy audio format is designed to provide high quality at about 192 kbit/s and higher bit rates for stereo sound signals. A company spokesperson stated Ziggo passes the digital radio stations to its end users as provided by
UPC Netherlands - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-522: The DVB-C specification. UPC did use the Nagravision conditional access system . Nevertheless, about 40 TV channels and also 40 radio channels were transmitted in clear ( unencrypted ). The new high-end set-top box called Horizon got its first release in the Netherlands on 7 September 2012. It incorporates television, internet and telephone services in one device. It has six tuners , a modem and
3102-441: The DVB-C , DVB-C2 stream to IP for distribution of TV over IP network in the home. Many cable companies offer internet access through DOCSIS . In the most common system, multiple television channels (as many as 500, although this varies depending on the provider's available channel capacity) are distributed to subscriber residences through a coaxial cable , which comes from a trunkline supported on utility poles originating at
3196-564: 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. Ziggo opted to start
3290-616: The high band 7–13 of North American television frequencies . Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario , used a dual distribution network with Channels 2–13 on each of the two cables. During the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access (PEG) created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. As cable penetration increased, numerous cable-only TV stations were launched, many with their own news bureaus that could provide more immediate and more localized content than that provided by
3384-430: The home network – including the network card in the computer, any switches and all cabling – must be suitable for multigigabit speeds. It is expected that in a few years' time a minor update of the currently used XGS-PON technology will allow the internet speed of the all-fiber-optics providers to be increased to 25 Gbit/s. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets reported 7.13 million FFTH connections at
3478-602: 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. As of 2022 Ziggo offers most television channels in 1080i or 720p HD format. 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. A few channels/programmes are (sometimes temporarily) offered in 1080p Full HD , 4K Ultra HD and if available in HLG or HDR color representation for
3572-465: The Netherlands and all countries of the European Union by customers that poses Apple TV or Android TV mediaplayers or Amazon Fire TV Sticks. Until 2023 the channels were distributed in 720p HD via Ziggo GO. For these channels, the compression technique Advanced Video Coding (H.264) is used. In April 2023 Ziggo started offering twelve channels in 1080p Full HD via Ziggo GO. For these channels,
3666-439: The Netherlands at the end of 2023. In all previous studies, the majority of the households opted for cable. Ziggo offers cable broadband internet subscriptions, and their hybrid fiber-coaxial (fiber-to-the-neighborhood [FFTN]) network passed 7.3733 million of the about 8.1 million Dutch homes in 2022. For internet, Ziggo used and uses various versions of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) technology. DOCSIS
3760-703: The Netherlands will be connected to a FFTH network in 2026/2027. According to the ACM the two major Internet service providers (ISP's) KPN and Ziggo experience sufficient competition and in retail market areas where Ziggo competes with a FFTH network, Ziggo's market share has fallen to just under 40% and is expected to fall slightly further. In the fall of 2023 (symmetric) multigigabit down- and upload speeds up to 8 Gbit/s with XGS-PON technology for domestic subscribers were launched on all three main FFTH landline networks. To experience multigigabit internet on one computer,
3854-434: The Netherlands. To prevent a further decline in the fixed coverage ratio (46.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2024), Ziggo's business challenge is the price policy of their subscription offerings. Competing all-fiber-optics providers do provide faster internet for the same or sometimes a lower price. With DVB-C and a better television platform, Ziggo remains ahead of its competitors with linear television content. However,
UPC Netherlands - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-508: The Netherlands. 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 . In the early 2020s the Ziggo network consist of: The digital television signal
4042-639: The UPC Nederland cable network. The name UPC was finally phased out in favor of Ziggo on 13 April 2015. UPC Nederland offered analogue and digital cable television , broadband Internet access, and voice over IP telephone services. UPC Nederland provided about 200 television channels including about 51 in HD and also more than 100 radio channels, DVR service, video-on-demand content, catch-up TV from public television broadcasters and commercial television stations and interactive television using
4136-715: The UPC name in 1998, with other networks, the largest being the Amsterdam A2000 network, joining later. Some of the larger cable companies bought by UPC were: A2000 ( Amsterdam and surrounding regions), Telekabel ( Gelderland , Brabant , and Friesland ), Gelrevision (Northern part of the Veluwe , South-east Flevoland and East Gelderland ), Eneco K&T ( Rotterdam and surrounding regions), Combivisie ( Brabant ) and several smaller and mid-sized networks. UPC Nederland owned premium television service CineNova in
4230-485: The United States have switched to or are in the course of switching to digital cable television since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. Most cable companies require a set-top box ( cable converter box ) or a slot on one's TV set for conditional access module cards to view their cable channels, even on newer televisions with digital cable QAM tuners, because most digital cable channels are now encrypted, or scrambled , to reduce cable service theft . A cable from
4324-560: The about 8.1 million Dutch households in 2022 had (A)DSL and cable internet access. Due to the almost universal cable availability and progressing roll-out of several fiber-to-the-home (FFTH) XGS-PON networks, it is expected (A)DSL will largely be phased out in the late 2020s. Four (Delta Fiber, KPN, Open Dutch Fiber/Odido, Ziggo) competing gigabit landline networks are regarded too many to be commercially economically viable. Mergers, acquisitions or mutual cooperation between these high-speed internet networks are expected at some point. At
4418-558: 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. 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
4512-404: The basic selection. By subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels. Large cable companies used addressable descramblers to limit access to premium channels for customers not subscribing to higher tiers, however the above magazines often published workarounds for that technology as well. During the 1990s, the pressure to accommodate
4606-563: The cable box itself, these midband channels were used for early incarnations of pay TV , e.g. The Z Channel (Los Angeles) and HBO but transmitted in the clear i.e. not scrambled as standard TV sets of the period could not pick up the signal nor could the average consumer de-tune the normal stations to be able to receive it. Once tuners that could receive select mid-band and super-band channels began to be incorporated into standard television sets, broadcasters were forced to either install scrambling circuitry or move these signals further out of
4700-429: The cable company's local distribution facility, called the headend . Many channels can be transmitted through one coaxial cable by a technique called frequency division multiplexing . At the headend, each television channel is translated to a different frequency . By giving each channel a different frequency slot on the cable, the separate television signals do not interfere with each other. At an outdoor cable box on
4794-515: The cable to send data from the customer box to the cable headend, for advanced features such as requesting pay-per-view shows or movies, cable internet access , and cable telephone service . The downstream channels occupy a band of frequencies from approximately 50 MHz to 1 GHz, while the upstream channels occupy frequencies of 5 to 42 MHz. Subscribers pay with a monthly fee. Subscribers can choose from several levels of service, with premium packages including more channels but costing
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#17327986524364888-675: The case of no local CBS or ABC station being available – rebroadcast the programming from a nearby affiliate but fill in with its own news and other community programming to suit its own locale. Many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into today's many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries . Cable specialty channels , starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By
4982-508: The chosen channel into the TV set on Channel 2, 3 or 4. Initially, UHF broadcast stations were at a disadvantage because the standard TV sets in use at the time were unable to receive their channels. With the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1964, all new television sets were required to include a UHF tuner, nonetheless, it would still take a few years for UHF stations to become competitive. Before being added to
5076-413: The competitive Dutch market. Large corporate customers can be provided with all-fiber-optics to their business buildings by Ziggo. Only on a small project scale, Ziggo offers fiber-to-the-home (FFTH) connections since 2021. These FTTH connections are based on a radio frequency over glass (RFoG) deep-fiber network design in which the coaxial portion of the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network is replaced by
5170-418: The compression technique High Efficiency Video Coding (H.265) is used. In comparison to H.264, H.265 offers from 25% to 50% better data compression at the same level of video quality , or substantially improved video quality at the same bit rate . In the Netherlands, there are three types of connections for landline broadband access internet available: (A) DSL , cable and fiber-optics . Almost every of
5264-452: The deployment of DOCSIS 3.1 in limited regions. This upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 enabled download speeds up to 1 Gbit/s and is marketed as GigaNet. Since then EuroDOCSIS 3.1 was rolled out widely to offer asymmetric Internet access with asymmetric upload speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s. Ziggo completed the DOCSIS 3.1 roll-out operation in December 2022. At the same time, the company announced it
5358-586: 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
5452-635: The end of 2022 5.34 million Dutch homes were passed by at least one FFTH network. Up to then the growth of FFTH was mainly due to the declining use of (A)DSL in providing internet. The combined cable and FFTH networks offered access to 1 Gbit/s download speeds for 97% of the Dutch residential addresses at the end of 2022. In July 2023, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets ( Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) ) regulator calculated 6.1 million homes were passed by at least one FFTH network and expected that almost all homes in
5546-431: The end of 2023, of which 2.64 million (37.3% coverage ratio) were used. Due to competitive symmetric internet speed FFTH network offerings, Ziggo upgraded their asymmetric internet speeds offerings twice during 2023. According to the quarterly Dutch Consumer Broadband research for broadband internet access by market researcher Telecompaper reported FTTH surpassed cable to become the most popular broadband technology in
5640-486: The entire network. As in the early 2020s about 10% of Ziggo's total network length uses fiber-optical cables instead of coaxial cables, going all-fiber-optics will be a strategic investment to maintain sufficient ISP market share which seems to be postponed for the time being. In September 2023 the CEO of VodafoneZiggo co-owner Liberty Global said the company "feels good about DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0" but added that it has options in
5734-415: The fact that the descrambling circuitry was for a time present in these tuners, depriving the cable operator of much of their revenue, such cable-ready tuners are rarely used now – requiring a return to the set-top boxes used from the 1970s onward. The digital television transition in the United States has put all signals, broadcast and cable, into digital form, rendering analog cable television service
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#17327986524365828-519: The first commercial DOCSIS 4 launch of an upgraded hybrid fiber-coaxial 1.2 GHz Full Duplex (FDX) network, offering symmetrical speeds up to 2 Gbit/s, was by Comcast/Xfinity in a selected area in the United States. Until early 2024, VodafoneZiggo has been reluctant to invest in upgrading the hybrid fiber-coaxial (fiber-to-the-neighborhood [FFTN]) network to a pure fiber-to-the-home (FFTH) network. Investing in DOCSIS 4.0 and possibly later DOCSIS upgrades costs less than going all-fiber-optics for
5922-582: The first press releases emerged regarding an internal DOCSIS 4.0 test by Ziggo at their VodafoneZiggo TEC Campus in Amsterdam. The commencement of testing this DOCSIS technology version was announced in 2022. The first deployment of DOCSIS 4.0 in limited regions is not expected before 2024 or 2025, assuming by then sufficient DOCSIS 4.0 capable modems and other network components are available. Ziggo expects to start DOCSIS 4 field tests in 2024 and gradually achieve an asymmetric download speed of 5 Gbit/s in
6016-507: 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
6110-452: The further future. It is not highly likely Ziggo will quickly roll out DOCSIS 4 over their full service area, as the coaxial segment frequency spectrum used increases from 1 to 1.2 GHz for Full Duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 4 or to 1.8 GHz for Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD). For that, Ziggo must disable linear television distribution via DVB-C. The probably bigger challenge for delivering multi-gigabyte symmetrical internet speeds with DOCSIS 4
6204-546: The future. As of 2024 , 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
6298-457: The growing array of offerings resulted in digital transmission that made more efficient use of the VHF signal capacity; fibre optics was common to carry signals into areas near the home, where coax could carry higher frequencies over the short remaining distance. Although for a time in the 1980s and 1990s, television receivers and VCRs were equipped to receive the mid-band and super-band channels. Due to
6392-450: The headend, the electrical signal is translated into an optical signal and sent through the fiber. The fiber trunkline goes to several distribution hubs , from which multiple fibers fan out to carry the signal to boxes called optical nodes in local communities. At the optical node, the optical signal is translated back into an electrical signal and carried by coaxial cable distribution lines on utility poles, from which cables branch out to
6486-452: The hybrid fiber-coaxial network, that eventually will be switched off. Multiple providers including KPN, Odido and Ziggo will mutually compete with their services on the new open network. Ziggo by exception will be offering symmetric up- and download speeds on this municipal network. As of December 2017 , Ziggo has 2.551 million subscribers to their land-line telephone services and 2.065 million subscribers in December 2022. It also offered
6580-515: 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. 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
6674-460: The jack in the wall is attached to the input of the box, and an output cable from the box is attached to the television, usually the RF-IN or composite input on older TVs. Since the set-top box only decodes the single channel that is being watched, each television in the house requires a separate box. Some unencrypted channels, usually traditional over-the-air broadcast networks, can be displayed without
6768-490: The late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, some of which by this time had expanded beyond 35 channels. By the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulators to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above
6862-423: The maximum number of channels that could be broadcast in one city was 7: channels 2, 4, either 5 or 6, 7, 9, 11 and 13, as receivers at the time were unable to receive strong (local) signals on adjacent channels without distortion. (There were frequency gaps between 4 and 5, and between 6 and 7, which allowed both to be used in the same city). As equipment improved, all twelve channels could be utilized, except where
6956-434: The media consumption of the Dutch households is changing so quickly towards online that this advantage is losing relevance. Cable operators Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables , or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables . This contrasts with broadcast television , in which
7050-439: 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. 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
7144-496: 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. 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
7238-451: The nearest network newscast. Such stations may use similar on-air branding as that used by the nearby broadcast network affiliate, but the fact that these stations do not broadcast over the air and are not regulated by the FCC, their call signs are meaningless. These stations evolved partially into today's over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e.g. NBC 37* would – in
7332-694: 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. 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
7426-408: The old analog cable without a set-top box. To receive digital cable channels on an analog television set, even unencrypted ones, requires a different type of box, a digital television adapter supplied by the cable company or purchased by the subscriber. Another new distribution method that takes advantage of the low cost high quality DVB distribution to residential areas, uses TV gateways to convert
7520-575: 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. In 2022 Internet Protocol television (IPTV)
7614-504: The programming at the headend (the individual channels, which are distributed nationally, also have their own nationally oriented commercials). Modern cable systems are large, with a single network and headend often serving an entire metropolitan area . Most systems use hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) distribution; this means the trunklines that carry the signal from the headend to local neighborhoods are optical fiber to provide greater bandwidth and also extra capacity for future expansion. At
7708-454: The programming without cost. Later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups. About this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to
7802-502: 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
7896-476: The range of reception for early cable-ready TVs and VCRs. However, once consumer sets had the ability to receive all 181 FCC allocated channels, premium broadcasters were left with no choice but to scramble. The descrambling circuitry was often published in electronics hobby magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Electronics allowing anybody with anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of broadcast electronics to be able to build their own and receive
7990-418: The signals are typically encrypted on modern digital cable systems, and the set-top box must be activated by an activation code sent by the cable company before it will function, which is only sent after the subscriber signs up. If the subscriber fails to pay their bill, the cable company can send a signal to deactivate the subscriber's box, preventing reception. There are also usually upstream channels on
8084-403: The subscriber's residence, the company's service drop cable is connected to cables distributing the signal to different rooms in the building. At each television, the subscriber's television or a set-top box provided by the cable company translates the desired channel back to its original frequency ( baseband ), and it is displayed onscreen. Due to widespread cable theft in earlier analog systems,
8178-458: The television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna , or satellite television , in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite and received by a satellite dish on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet , telephone services , and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television
8272-532: The upstream speed to 31.2 Kbp/s and prevented the always-on convenience broadband internet typically provides. Many large cable systems have upgraded or are upgrading their equipment to allow for bi-directional signals, thus allowing for greater upload speed and always-on convenience, though these upgrades are expensive. In North America , Australia and Europe , many cable operators have already introduced cable telephone service, which operates just like existing fixed line operators. This service involves installing
8366-706: 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 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
8460-427: Was limited, meaning frequencies over 250 MHz were difficult to transmit to distant portions of the coaxial network, and UHF channels could not be used at all. To expand beyond 12 channels, non-standard midband channels had to be used, located between the FM band and Channel 7, or superband beyond Channel 13 up to about 300 MHz; these channels initially were only accessible using separate tuner boxes that sent
8554-559: Was mainly used to relay terrestrial channels in geographical areas poorly served by terrestrial television signals. Cable television began in the United States as a commercial business in 1950s. The early systems simply received weak ( broadcast ) channels, amplified them, and sent them over unshielded wires to the subscribers, limited to a community or to adjacent communities. The receiving antenna would be taller than any individual subscriber could afford, thus bringing in stronger signals; in hilly or mountainous terrain it would be placed at
8648-444: Was renamed by Ziggo GO on 9 November 2016. From 2017 until 2021 - after the closing of HBO Netherlands and before the Netherlands launch of HBO Max , all HBO content was available on Ziggo GO. Internet-only subscribers with Ziggo can officially purchase an additional subscription for the online television service Ziggo GO as a supplement when such a subscription is purchased via the internet site. Ziggo GO can be viewed throughout
8742-455: Was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel (sometimes known as a cable network ) is a television network available via cable television. Many of the same channels are distributed through satellite television . Alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service , the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. The abbreviation CATV
8836-551: 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
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