Sogecable reported better than expected first quarter results after DTH platorm Digital+ reduced its churn rate to 10.9% from the heights of 12% a year ago. At the same time free-TV channel Cuatro doubled advertising revenues to €58.1 million from €28.9m a year earlier.
Subscriptions to Digital+ grew by 21,000 on the quarter bringing the total to 2,065,000. Subscriber revenues are also on the climb, by 6% year-on-year, coming close to €300m. In February the Canal+ premium offer was repackaged with some channels available only to Digital+ subscribers.
The repackaging, similar to that recently undergone by Sky Movies in the UK, has divided the Spanish version of Canal+ into genre-specific channels. Canal+ Acción, Canal+ Comedia, Canal+ DCine, Canal+ Fútbol, Canal+ Deportes (Sports) and Canal+ Eventos. A number of the new channels also have time-shifted versions available.
In total Sogecable reported a first quarter profit of €1.2 million compared to a €20.1m loss in the first quarter of 2006.
