Russia’s Rostelecom ended Q3 with 8.4 million subscribers to its pay-TV services, or 8% more than in the same period last year.
Within that, the number opting for IPTV grew even more impressively, up 25% to 3.1 million. The figures were revised upwards following a post-audit review.
Similarly, following such a review, its broadband subscriber base grew by 3% to 11.4 million in the year to September 30.
Rostelecom’s revenues in Q3 amounted to R72,496 million (€1,042 million), down 3% on a year earlier, while OIBDA was 4% lower at R25,182 million. Its net income fell by 59% to R2,046 million.
Commenting on the results, Sergei Kalugin, president of Rostelecom, said: “In the third quarter we continued to develop our digital segment by increasing our broadband and pay-TV subscriber bases, whilst promoting value-added services.
“Rostelecom?s board of directors approved a new business development strategy during the quarter, which identified the most promising and fast-growing segments, including IoT, data centres, OTT video, cloud services and geodata. Our launch of “Interactive TV 2.0”, a service that can be used by customers of other networks, is an example of how we can grow our subscriber base by going beyond our network. We expect each of these areas to provide additional impetus to our future revenue growth.
“We continue to enhance our management team and we are pleased to welcome Valery Ermakov as head of B2B and B2G services. As a specialist with extensive experience in the industry, he will be instrumental in bringing the B2B / B2G segment to a new level.”
