Kabel Deutschland’s new services performance showed increasing momentum in the third quarter of fiscal year 2012/13. The company added record internet RGUs of 84,000, reaching 1,741,000 on December 31, 2012.
Year on year, internet RGUs grew by 295,000 or 20.4%. As of December 31, 2012, KDG reported 1,856,000 internet and telephony subscribers, up by 293,000 or 18.7% year on year.
In particular, the operator’s superfast 100 Mbps products have become increasingly popular with a take-rate approaching 40% where available; one year earlier this share was just above 20%.
Kabel Deutschland’s direct subscriber base showed a positive trend over the past four quarters. As of December 31, 2012, it stood at 7,566,000 subscribers (plus 65,000 net adds year on year).
The number of total unique subscribers remained stable quarter on quarter despite the loss of 13,000 indirect subscribers.
As per December 31, 2012, total unique subscribers amounted to 8,501,000 (September 30, 2012: 8,498,000).
In the premium TV segment, RGU growth picked up in the third quarter. Kabel Deutschland added 107,000 premium TV RGUs quarter on quarter (prior quarter 81,000). Thereof, PVRs accounted for 61,000 and pay TV for 47,000 RGUs (previous quarter: 47,000 and 34,000, respectively).
As of December 31, 2012, the cabler accounted for 1,970,000 premium TV RGUs, representing an annual growth of 422,000 RGUs or 27.3%.
The company also sees continuously strong demand for its HD Private product with 1,068,000 activated smartcards end of December 2012 (209,000 incremental units quarter on quarter).
Mostly as a result of growing premium TV penetration, the total blended TV ARPU per subscriber increased to €10.43 in the third quarter, up by €0.57 or 5.8% from €9.86 in the previous year’s third quarter.
