Canal+ Group ended 2013 with 10.4 million individual subscribers, or 249,000 more than a year earlier, while its total subscription total stood at 14.7 million.
Growth was primarily down to the company’s performance in overseas countries, where the number of individual subscribers rose by 275,000 in 2013 to reach 4.4 million.
At the same time, in mainland France the total number of individual subscribers remained stable at 6.1 million despite a challenging economic and competitive environment.
Meanwhile, new ARPU in mainland France rose from €43.2 in 2012 to €44.2 last year.
Canal+ Group’s revenues in 2013 amounted to €5,311 million, up by 5.9% on a year but 0.5% down at constant perimeter and currency.
The main drivers were pay-TV operations in Africa and Poland, along with the acquisition and successful re-launch of the FTA channels D8 and D17.
Excluding transition costs related to the latter and new operations in Poland, the group’s EBITA was €661 million, or 1.9% less than in 2012.
This was due to lower ad revenues on pay-TV channels and higher programming costs due to an increase in exclusive content.
Including transition cost and new operations in Poland, EBITA amounted to €611 million.
Canal+ Group is preparing itself for the arrival of Netflix in France later this year. It has already responded to the threat by launching a new division named Canal OTT.
