Sistema sees pay TV growth

Sistema-backed Russian service provider MTS had 2.6 million pay TV customers at the end of the first quarter, up from 1.8 million year-on-year.

Sistema reported a total of 5.5 million subscribers to its Stream-TV service (which is also distributed via other service providers), up 10.2% year-on-year.

MTS had a total of 1.9 million broadband internet subscribers, up 39.2% year-on-year. The company reported first-quarter revenues of US$2.93 billion (€2.04 billion), up 12.2% year-on-year. Operating income before depreciation and amortization was US$1.14 billion, down 1.9% as a result of one-off expenses related to its merger with Comstar-UTS, increased subscriber acquisition costs and costs related to its suspension of operations in Turkmenistan.