The combination of a strong triple play offer and the integration of the Interkabel network boosted first half revenues at Flemish cabler Telenet.
First half revenues of €577.4 million were up 17% on 2008, delivering an EBITDA of €304.7 million, up 26%, and operating profit of €155.9 million, up 35%.
An additional 76,000 digital TV subscriptions were added, 29,000 to telephony and 30,000 to broadband. As of June 30, 2009, Telenet held 854,000 digital TV subscribers including 792,000 to its Telenet Digital TV product and a further 62,000 on the INDI Digital TV platform acquired as part of the Interkabel purchase.
The company said that the vast majority of new digital TV subscribers were taking the HD PVR product. 40% of subscribers within the Telenet legacy footprint now take digital TV services compared to 29% in June 2008.
There are feint signs that the popularity of video on demand services, for so long Telenet’s success story, may have peaked. Although monthly transactions in Q2 of 7.6 million were up 52% year on year, this is to be expected with an increased subscriber base. Transactions per user reduced slightly from 3.6 in H1 2008 to 3.5 in H1 2009. Telenet attributes this to more popular content being available in 2008.
