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Business of TV Sport
Sportel Monaco 2011

“Positive trend” for Digital Plus subscribers

Spanish media group Prisa reported “a positive trend” in subscribers to its Digital Plus satellite platform, with net positive additions in June on the back of the Fifa World Cup. Subscriber numbers for the the full quarter to June, however, continued to fall.
At end-June, Digital Plus reported 1,784,843 subscribers, down 14,000 over the three months from March. A decline of 61,000 subscribers since January compares favourably with the 104,000 drop in the first six months of 2009. Dedicated football channel Canal Plus Liga has over 800,000 subscribers. Prisa said that the positive trend “would have been even better” had there not been a delay in recording the results of wholesale distribution deals with IPTV service Jazztel and cable operator Telecable.

Digital Plus reported revenues of €567.24 million ($737 million) in the six months from January to June, with ebitda of €131.91 million representing a 23.3 per cent margin, against a 21-per-cent margin in the same period last year. Arpu reached €42.20 per month, a 1.6-per-cent rise on the same quarter last year.

Free-to-air channel Cuatro reported a 52-per-cent rise in operating revenues for the first six months of 2010, to €222.72 million, boosted by the World Cup, although a 47-per-cent increase in operating expenses resulted in an overall negative ebitda of €13.7 million, a 5.5-per-cent improvement on the first half of 2009.