Penetration of triple play services from the Portuguese cable operator Zon reached over 55% by the end of 2010, a 14.1 percentage point increase on 2009, and an additional 3.3pp in the fourth quarter. The rollout of advanced services, such as the recent deployment of the NDS Snowflake interface, has put the cableco among the leading operators in Europe.
The number of services taken by Zon customers now stands at 2.25 compared to 2.01 at the end of 2009. In total, as of December 31, 2010, Zon had 3.147 million RGUs. At the same time ARPU enjoyed a year-on-year growth of 4.8% to reach €35.4.
Operating Revenue increased by 7.3% year-on-year to €872.3 million. EBITDA grew by 15.2% to €302.4 million.
Zon was able to grow revenues despite the matching of a rival offer that gave triple play customers a 50% discount on their monthly fee until the end of the year. Analysts will now be watching Zon’s figures to see whether there is any softness in its triple play base.
Zon now has 1.572 million customers, 1.164 million fall within the HFC (High Fibre Coax) footprint. Penetration of the Zon HD digital boxes now stands at 70% and sequential growth is beginning to decline. 885,000 were installed as of the end of 2010, an increase of 339,000 during the year.
The high penetration of both high-end boxes and broadband internet means Zon is now beginning to reduce its capital expenditure.
