Ono loses subs but records rise in profits

Spanish cable operator Ono blamed current economic conditions for a 3.2% decline in revenues during the first quarter to €388m, although the company saw a 61% rise in net profits. EBITDA for the quarter was €183m, up 10.4% year-on-year.

The operator ended the quarter with 1.845 million customers, down 1.8% year-on-year. ARPU was down €1.30 on the previous quarter to €51.90 but net churn also declined to 17.8% from 20.9% at the end of 2008.

The number of cable TV customers decreased by 23,000 or 2.2% in the first quarter, reaching 1,016,000 at the end of March 2009. Ono said the decline was due to the discontinuation of  TV services on a standalone basis as it increased its focus on selling TV as part of double- and triple-play packages. Internet customers increased by 12,000 to 1,295,000, while the operator also added 8,000 telephony customers during the quarter, giving it a total of 1,646,000. At the end of the quarter, 34.2% of Ono’s customers took triple-play services, 46.1% took two services and 19.7% took one service. Telephony continues to account for Ono’s largest proportion of RGUs, with 89.2% of customers subscribing to those services.