Increased ARPU helped offset the continued subscriber loss for Canal Digital’s DTH business in the third quarter. Revenue growth of 13% within the Norwegian cable business and 9% within the Transmission and Encryption businesses of Norkring and Conax ultimately delivered operating profits of NOK 383m (€44.2m) for Telenor’s Broadcast division.
DTH subscribers declined by 14,000, almost double the losses of the third quarter 2009, closing at 1,025,000. This represents an annual decline of 46,000 homes. Revenues were kept up by an increase in subscriber fees, while the Norwegian cable business continues to buck the trend, adding 8,000 broadband subscribers on the quarter to take the overall cable broadband base to 270,000.
Operating profit within the Canal Digital Group of NOK 193m, was significantly higher than the NOK 105m of Q3 2009 and included a NOK 20m gain from the sale of some smaller cable networks in Norway.
Transmission & Encryption put in a good performance all round with higher revenues at Conax for its conditional access services, increased satellite sales into the Canal Digital Group and a contribution from Norkring Belgie adding up to NOK 229m.
