How well is Digi Communications performing in Romania and Hungary, its two markets in Central and Eastern Europe?
The latest results published by the company paint a largely positive picture. Take RGUs. In Romania, the company ended June with 11,116,000, or 428,000 more than a year earlier. However, if we break down this figure we see that the number of cable TV RGUs grew impressively, by 299,000 to reach 3,447,000, while the DTH total contracted by 47,000 to 517,000.
Alongside this, ARPU for residential cable TV clients grew by 3.9% to €5.3, and for DTH by 6.3% to €5.1.
The company points out that ARPU for cable TV, DTH and mobile services increased in Q2 due to price rises in March. There was also a negative year-on-year FX impact that affected ARPU in Romania.
Revenues in the first six months of 2019 were, at €368.8 million, 8.7% higher than in the same period last year.
In Hungary, on the other hand, the RGU total increased by 28,000 to 2,476,000 in the year to June 30. Within this, cable TV RGUs rose by 12,000 to 696,000 and DTH RGUs fell by 23,000 to 276,000. Cable TV ARPU fell by 2.4% to €8 and DTH ARPU by 1.1% to €9.1.
Increases in cable TV, internet and fixed telephony RGUs were put down to the acquisition of Invitel, Hungary’s leading alternative telco.
Digi’s H1 revenues in Hungary were, at €110.4 million, 37.3% higher than a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA was 69.1% higher at €25.7 million.
The results show that cable remains at the core of Digi’s business, accounting for over one quarter (26.75%) of its RGU total. DTH, however, claims a more modest 5.13%.
Although the company’s total revenues in H1 were 18.3% higher than a year earlier, its net profit slumped from €12.9 million to €3.2 million over the same period.
