Premium products including pay-TV, PVR, internet and telephony are behind a rise of almost one million RGUs for Kabel Deutschland (KDG). 618,000 customers added internet and telephony services, taking the installed bases to 547,700 and 529,800. The total number of RGUs is 11,255,000 compared to 10.39 million in 2007.
The number of subscribers taking digital pay-TV services increased by 91,900 to 823,000, a rise of 12.6%. Premium products over and above the basic analogue cable connection now comprise 26.4% of all subscriptions compared to 17.8% at this time last year. However, ARPU remains a relatively low €10.92, though still an increase on the €9.37 seen in 2007.
“With this progress, we are pleased. Nevertheless, taking the difficult general economic conditions into account, we need to focus on strengthening our market position and working on our cost structures. Only so we can safeguard the sustainability of the company,” comments Adrian v. Hammerstein, CEO, Kabel Deutschland.
KDG increased second quarter revenues by 15.4% to €339.3 million while EBITDA increased 30% to €142.9 million. The higher numbers are partly attributable to the networks acquired earlier this year from the Orion Cable Group.