Unitymedia has increased the number of subscriptions to its triple play offer of internet, telephony and digital TV by 66% year-on-year. In an end of year subscriber update, the Cologne-based cablenet said it had added another 204,000 revenue generating units (RGUs) in the fourth quarter, bringing the total number to 1.6 million.
“We are successfully delivering on our strategy of migrating our large basic cable subscriber base to higher value Unity3play services,” said CEO Palm Sandhu. “Across the board increases in Internet, Telephony and Digital TV Pay RGUs reflect the increasing strength of the Unitymedia brand. Unitymedia stands for a superior consumer proposition leveraging the unique advantages of our digital network.”
Digital pay-TV subscriptions increased by 37,000 on the quarter to 569,000 and targeted city-based marketing initiatives helped increase internet RGUs by 103% year-on-year to 630,000 at the end of the fourth quarter.
Against the success of the Unity3play offer, basic cable subscriptions continue to fall, from 4,762,000 in Q4 2007 to 4,619,000 in Q4 2008. Unitymedia will be looking to redress the balance now that 83% of its network has been fully upgraded. In common with other operators, subscribers are often finding the temptation of free-to-air DTT too great.
