Telenor Broadcast grows revenues despite subscriber losses

Pay-TV and broadcast infrastructure provider Telenor Broadcast managed to grow its revenues, EBITDA and operating profit in the first quarter, despite overall pay-TV subscriber numbers falling.

Telenor Broadcast turned in revenues of NOK2.102bn (€241m) for the quarter, up from NOK1.922bn in 2008. EBITDA was NOK435m, up from NOK423m, while operating profit stood at NOK220m, up from NOK210m. EBITDA as a percentage of overall revenue fell slightly from 22% to 20.7%.

Telenor’s Canal Digital pay-TV arm lost 17,000 DTH customers over the quarter, taking its total to 1.096 million, and 7,000 cable TV customers, taking the total to 739,000. Cable internet subscribers grew by 16,000 to 204,000, however.

Households served by SMATV systems numbered 1.104 million at the end of the quarter, while digital terrestrial and IPTV customers numbered 32,000 and 6,000 respectively.

While subscriber numbers continue to fall, ARPU has increased across the board. DTH ARPU stood at NOK298 a month, up from NOK270 year-on-year, while cable TV ARPU was NOK211, up from NOK180. DTH HD penetration stood at 18% at the end of the first quarter, while multi-room penetration stood at 22%.