Increased revenues, new services and a growing subscriber base all contributed to a comfortable first half for Canal+ Group.
The Vivendi-owned pay-TV company enjoyed revenues of €2,327 million, a 3.1% increase on the first six months of 2009. The combined subscription base of metropolitan France, French overseas territories and Africa delivered an additional 356,000 subscribers. Within metropolitan France, gross subscriptions increased year-on-year, narrowing churn from 13% to 11.6% over the last 12 months.
ARPU also climbed, an additional €1.9 being generated by subscribers every month to reach €46.3. The key driver has been the additional services of HD, DVR and Foot+, which between them have 1 million subscribers. The new version of Le Cube set-top box has also been deemed a success.
Group EBITA of €486 million, represented a 3.0% increase on 2009.
The gradual switch-off of the terrestrially-delivered analogue version of Canal+ left the service with just 100,000 left to convert at the end of June, representing but a small fraction of the subscriber base.
According to Vivendi Canal+ Poland “continued to grow despite a tougher competitive environment”.