Canal Plus Group posts EBITA growth

Canal Plus Group contributed EBITA of €254m to parent company Vivendi’s first quarter results for 2009, up 49.4% on the same period last year. Canal Plus Group posted revenues of €1.119bn, up 1.8% year-on-year excluding currency variations. The premium Canal Plus service reported revenues of €445m, down from €457m.

Canal Plus added 75,000 net customers year-on-year excluding the 110,000 downward adjustment resulting from the switch-off of the TPS signal last year. This resulted in a total subscription base of 10.418 million at the end of March, compared with 10.453 million a year earlier. CanalSat platform subscribers numbered 5.268 million, up from 5.175 million a year earlier, while Canal Plus subscribers numbered 5.150 million, down from 5.278 million. Of the Canal Plus subscribers, 85% took the Canal Plus Le Bouquet digital package, up from 74% a year earlier.

Vivendi-owned service provider SFR turned in EBITA of €610m for the quarter, down 2.2% on the comparable period last year. Vivendi as a whole posted EBITA of €1.393bn for the quarter, up 15.8%. The group posted revenues of €6.53bn, up 23.7%, with adjusted net income of €649m, down 6.9%.