Ziggo suffers digital pay TV declines

Ziggo’s digital pay TV revenues were down 1.4% in Q3 due to a decline in subscribers, the Dutch cable operator announced in its latest earnings announcement. 

In its third quarter figures, Ziggo said that its number of digital pay TV subscribers fell by 4.5% year-on-year to 863,000.

However, compared to the same quarter last year, Ziggo’s number of broadband internet subscribers grew by 5.4% to 1.83 million, benefitted by an increased focus on its TV and internet dual play bundle.

Digital TV pay TV service revenue fell by 1.4% to €40.3 million, with a decrease in customers partly offset by an ARPU increase and an uptake in VoD.

“The number of TV-only subscribers decreased by 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year, landing at a total of 634,000 as at September 30, 2014. The decrease was mainly due to the upsell of the dual play bundle to our TV-only subscribers, as well as churn among our TV-only subscribers,” said Ziggo.

The company warned that it expects to continue to experience churn among its TV-only customers as a result of increased competition and a “market moving towards dual and triple play.”

Overall in the quarter, Ziggo reported revenue of €402.6 million, up 2.9% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA was €228.0 million, up 3.4% year-on-year.