TVN Group sees audience share rise, nc+ reaches 2.3m

Poland’s TVN Group saw the audience share of its channels boosted by the country’s digital-terrestrial rollout in the second quarter and the company said the ongoing decline in its top line slowed down as a result of an improving advertising market.

TVN-backed pay TV platform nc+ meanwhile reported 2.3 million post-paid subscribers at the end of the quarter, posting total revenue of PLN1.138 billion (€268 million) and reaching ARPU of PLN63.40.

TVN said its flagship channel gathered the highest audience share for the period, while TVN7 and TTV increased their viewership by 70% thanks to the Polish DTT rollout.

Overall, revenue for TVN Group fell by 2.5% in the quarter,  giving a first half fall of 4% in what the company described as a “weak but improving TV advertising market”.

EBITDA grew by 20% to PLN171 million thanks to the slowing revenue decline and significant cost savings.

“I am proud to announce that for the first time ever TVN Group reports the market leader position in all day audience share in the commercial target group with 23.9% share in the second quarter,” said CEO Markus Tellenbach. “Moreover, our schedules outperformed the main competitors for the last four quarters, despite significant savings generated during that period. Such an excellent performance translated into a profitability which is returning to pre-crisis levels, reflecting the efficiency of our approach to content production and exploitation. TVN Group is dedicated to further support the high quality and strong performance of its schedules across all channels, taking into consideration the ongoing fragmentation which is fuelled by the DTT roll-out and on the backdrop of the first signs of the TV advertising market improvement. We are convinced that TVN Group is to outperform the mid-single digit decline of the TV advertising market and deliver adjusted EBITDA comparable to last year. This allows the management to reconfirm its guidance for 2013 given on February 28.”