Modern Times Group has improved sales for a fourth consecutive quarter, amid a pick up in the Scandinavian advertising market. OTT service Viaplay is also putting on the subscribers, while satellite ARPU is climbing, even if the total number of premium subscribers have dipped below 1 million.
The company recorded operating income (EBIT) of SEK162 million (€288 million), excl. associated company income of SEK127 million and net income of SEK196 million.
Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, president and CEO, says although the pay-TV markets are becoming more and more competitive, MTG has strong consumer offerings and have early mover advantage in the online space.
Premium satellite ARPU continued climbed to SEK5,089, up 5% y-o-y at constant exchange rates, following previously introduced price increases in Sweden and Norway and continued growth in the HD subscriber base.
HD penetration increased y-o-y to 62% (56%), while multi-room subscriptions were stable at 42%.
The Viasat satellite platform has been boosted during the first half of 2013 by the inclusion of two SBS free-TV channels and two CMore pay-TV channels in Denmark; the Sky News HD channel in all countries; and TV 2’s Zebra channel and on-demand library in Norway. In addition, Viasat’s football channels have been made available to Canal Digital cable subscribers in Norway.
Following Viaplay top-tier package price increases in Sweden and Denmark in Q1 2013, Viaplay is now available as an integral multi-screen service for Viasat premium satellite subscribers across the Nordic region.
In the East, subscriber levels continue to grow, particularly to the third party network subscriber base in Russia. The Group’s premium package of four HD channels in Russia and the rest of the CIS region continue to show strong subscriber growth, and a further distribution agreement was signed with Russian satellite operator NTV-Plus in the quarter.
However, operating costs increased significantly year over year following increases in HD content.
