MTS pay TV figures dip

Russian service provider MTS saw its number of pay TV subscribers dip in Q4, though revenues were up year-on-year. 

In the quarter, pay TV numbers dropped to 2.938 million, from 2.952 million the quarter before and 2.987 million for the same period a year earlier.

However, the firm said its number of both broadband and pay TV customers were impacted by the retrospective reclassification of subscribers of acquired companies with those of MTS.

At the same time the firm named the acquisition of Pilot and TVKiK, providers of fixed broadband and pay-TV services in the Kursk Oblast region of Russia, among its highlights of Q4.

For the quarter, revenue came in at $3.168 billion, up 6.2% year-on-year and 1.1% compared to the previous quarter. Net income was $547.3 million in the quarter, up 39.1% year-on-year.

However, full-year revenues were only up 0.9% to $12.4bn, while net income for the year fell 30% to $1 billion.

“Overall, we saw strong operating dynamics in our core Russian and Ukrainian markets, yet our group top line performance was limited by a significant weakening of the Russian ruble versus the US dollar and the mid-year suspension of our operations in Uzbekistan,” said MTS president and CEO Andrei Dubovskov.