Executives at the Italian media giant Mediaset are hailing the success of the Mediaset Premium, saying the DTT pay platform has helped to “significantly mitigate” the reduction in margins caused by the downturn in the Italian advertising market.
Total revenues for Mediaset Premium in the first nine months of the year came in at €379.9 million, compared €269.6 million in 2008, an increase of 41%. When ongoing revenues, such as card sales, top up fees and subscriptions, are taken into account the increase is 63.6%.
As of September 30, 2009, the number of active cards in the market was 2.9 million, compared to 2.5 million the previous year. The figures are all the more remarkable because by June 30, 2009 more than 2 million Premium cards had expired.
