Market researcher Mintel foresees half of UK households using a communications bundle by the year end. This trend is expected to push the bundle market value to £8bn. The growth in the bundles market was being accelerated by the simplified cost and supply savings that the bundles offered.

Matt King, a senior analyst at Mintel has a theory that links recession with the growing interest in in-home leisure. According to him, bundling has proven to be a method that preserves the entertainment value offered by Internet and pay-TV, by making these services available to families at much affordable rates.

Forty six percent of the consumers view fixed line Internet connectivity as the most critical element of the home communications services bundle. The increasing penetration of broadband, according to King, was expected to establish the supremacy of web in the future

According to Matt King, suppliers of communications bundles ought to focus more on improving the services offered by bundles rather than merely increasing its offerings.