Advertising rebound compensates subscription decline for Prisa

The audiovisual sector contributed €1.206 billion to Spanish media group Prisa’s revenues for the first nine months of the year. Pay TV platform Digital Plus produced revenues of €817.5 million with EBITDA of €204.7 million.

Audiovisual advertising revenues were €325 million, up 14.6%, boosted by a strong showing from free-to-air channel Cuatro.

Digital Plus’s subscriber base stood at 1,772,677 at the end of September, with Premium football offer Canal Plus Liga standing at 810,000 customers. The iPlus DVR service had 245,940 subscribers and the Multi Plus multiroom service had 104,023 subscribers. ARPU stood at €41.10 a month, up 4.7%.

Prisa said the rate of decline in its subscriber numbers had slowed. The digital platform’s gross additions were up 9.6% on the previous year, while cancellations decreased by 15%. Overall subscribers were down 73,100 over the nine months, compared with a decline of 135,600 for the same period last year. Subscriber revenue was €688.7 million, down 9.5%.

Prisa itself posted revenues of €2.3 billion for the nine months to September, down 5.3%. EBITDA was €453 million, down 10.6%.

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