Telenet sees revenues rise as sub base grows

Belgian cable operator Telenet’s first-half revenues were up 17% year-on-year to €577.4m as it reported an aggregate of 135,000 new subscribers across its broadband, telephony and digital TV services.

During the second quarter, Telenet added 76,000 digital TV subscribers, giving it a total of 854,000 digital TV customers, compared with 479,000 a year earlier. Of those, 792,000 subscribed to Telenet Digital TV and the remaining 62,000 subscribed to the INDI Digital TV platform, which the operator acquired as part of the Interkabel acquisition. The rise in digital TV subscribers led to a 55% increase in VOD transactions during the first half of the year to 14.4 million. However, average monthly transactions per user declined slightly to 3.5 in the first six months of the year from 3.6 a year earlier. ARPU from premium TV services reached €53.10 for the first half of the year, up from €37.10 for the same period last year.

Telenet’s broadband and telephony services also performed well in the second quarter, with 30,000 and 29,000 net additions respectively. At the end of June, 606,000 subscribers took a triple-play package, up 69% year‐on‐year.

The operator reported first half EBITDA of €304.7m, up 26% year-on-year. Operating profit was up 35% to €155.9m.