German pay-TV platform Arena gained 1,035,000 subscribers in its first five months of operation. The Unity Media company accrued €82 million in revenues and made an EBITDA loss of €132m, in line with the company’s expectations. Its pre-launch activities cost €31m.
Earlier this week it was announced that Premiere would suspend marketing of the Arena football and entertainment package while an investigation from Germany’s cartel office was underway.
The figures were revealed within Unity Media’s full-year results to December 31, 2006, which have just been published. The company said that its cable operations in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse had significantly grown the number of subscribers taking triple play services. As of March 31, 2007, the number of RGUs (Revenue Generating Units) taking cable, internet and telephony represented 13% of the total, some 721,000 in all.
Revenues at Unity Media Cable rose by 5.6% to €599 million. The company marginally increased its EBITDA from €262 million in 2005 to €269m in 2006.
