Subscriber levels at Boxer Sweden constantly decreased during 2011, despite the introduction of new HD channels, and increased marketing efforts.
Teracom’s pay-DTT platform was hit by software issues with its new On Demand box, which resulted in the devices being withdrawn from the market in early January, though they are expected to be reintroduced in the next few weeks.
Boxer Sweden closed the year with 617,000 subscribers, down from 646,000 at the end of 2010, as subscribers continued to slide. At the same time a change to card billing practices meant a temporary loss of around SEK50 million (€5.68 million) and took the operating margin down by two percentage points.
A better picture emerged in Denmark, with the platform reaching 300,000 subscribers as of February 5, 2012. The number of subscribers increased through the year, Boxer cementing its position as a prefered brand, and boosted by the move of TV2 to pay status.
Plus TV in Finland remains the leading DTT platform and is regularly impacted by the seasonality of sporting events – 13,000 subscribers were added in the fourth quarter to compensate for 11,000 lost in the third – Plus TV ended the year 7,000 subscribers down. Meanwhile the existing subscriber base increased their spend.
