Astra”s German HD+ platform has reported 1,412,554 paying customers on December 31, 2013, a growth of 49% from 944,993 the revious year.
At the end of the year, a total of 2.7 million households awere able to receive the bouquet of HD channels in the Astra position at 19.2 degrees East.slightly over 1.3 homes are still in the free viewing period (all new buyers of a HD+ receiver and smart card receive a free access period).
The operator added 131,771 subscribers during the final quarter of the year.
HD+ also said it continues to expand the number of available channels. In Januari it added Disney Channel HD and in Aptil three more channels will become available, RTL NITRO HD, n-tv HD and ProSieben MAXX HD, making a total of 19 HD channels.
HD+ is also raising the prices of its services. A 12-month subscription (or ‘technical fee’ as the company prefers to call it) is raised from EUR50 to EUR60, while the cost of a smart card goes up from EUR55 to EUR65. People will from now on be able to pre-pay for the services or take out a subscription.
Last year, HD+ also launched an app for Android and iOS, the HD+ TV Guide, which is available for free. Already 130,000 people have downloaded the app.
