Viasat Broadcasting’s Nordic pay-TV business increased by 10% year-on-year, but the satcaster is facing an underlying fall in ARPU as a result of weighting subscriber acquisition towards IPTV.
Viasat has campaigns running in the Danish and Norwegian markets, adding 18,000 net premium subscribers and taking IPTV subs above 100,000, to 112,000, for the first time. Total subscriber acquisition costs increased by 11% year-on year to a quarterly SEK151 million (€13.98 million).
Total annualised ARPU was up 11% to SEK 4,343 on the quarter, from SEK 4,325 in the first quarter of the year.
Growth came from value added services including HD and multiroom, as well as earlier price increases. ViasatPlus PVR subscribers stood at 127,000, a 5,000 increase on the quarter, while Multiroom added 9,000 to reach 186,000.
Meanwhile in Central and Eastern Europe, Viasat’s premium pay-TV business in Ukraine and the Baltic Republics saw a reduction in subscribers in Q2, down from 214,000 to 204,000.
This was principally due to higher churn in the Baltic Republics, which have been particularly hard hit by the global economic crisis.
