MTS sees pay TV base flatline

Quad-play service provider MTS has seen its Russian pay TV subscriber base fall slightly year-on-year, which the company said was due to its redefining the subscriber base of acquired companies in line with its own practices.

MTS had 2.637 million pay TV customers at the end of June, down 0.1% year-on-year. The company’s fixed-line broadband base grew from 1.892 million to 1.957 million over the same period.

MTS’s fixed-line residential ARPU dropped by 2% quarter-on-quarter to RUB295 (€7) thanks to “overall market pressure driving prices for internet and pay TV access down”, the company said.

The last quarter has seen MTS acquire Tula-based cable operator Altair for RUB680 million and make an offer toacquire Sistema Inventure, owner of a 29% stake in Moscow network operator Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS), which the company sees as the first step towards merging MGTS into MTS. MTS expects synergies of RUB14 billion from the merger, which is expected to take two to three years to complete.

MTS as a whole posted second quarter revenues of US$3.1 billion (€2.2 billion), up 6.6%, and OIBDA of US$1.3 billion, up 15.7%.