Ziggo adds 6,000 digital TV subscribers in Q4 2013

UTRECHT — Ziggo N.V. has released Q4 2013 results.

Consumer products & services

Subscribers to digital Pay TV recovered slightly with a limited subscriber growth of 6,000 during the quarter versus a decline in the prior-year quarter and the first quarters of 2013. For the full year, the number of subscribers to digital Pay TV is still down by 64,000, partly due to the difficult macro-environment and the switch from subscription based to on-demand based video consumption.

The number of digital TV subscribers increased by 6,000 in Q4 to 2.25 million, representing a penetration of 84.7% of our consumer customer base. The number of TV-only subscribers decreased by 23.0% compared to the same quarter last year, to a total of 747,000 as at December 31, 2013. The decrease was mainly due to the upsell of the dual play and triple play bundle to our TV-only subscribers as well as churn. Among TV-only subscribers, churn came down compared to the end of last year and the first half of 2013, following higher investments in customer retention.

On November 5, we introduced the CI+ 1.3 module, enabling interactive services such as on-demand movies, television series or missed TV programs, without the use of a SetTop Box and using the remote control of the television set. Ziggo is the first in the world to enable interactive television via such a CI+ module. Since the beginning of 2013, an increasing number of televisions has been enabled for usage of this CI+ 1.3 module. Many Samsung, LG and Philips televisions have already been certified by Ziggo for this service and many more brands are to be expected in 2014. The CI+ 1.3 module makes use of the streaming graphical user interface (SGUI) which was deployed earlier this year.

By December 31, the number of activated decoders with this new SGUI had grown to over 310,000 (excl. CI+ 1.3), from 229,000 at the end of Q3. Today, the SGUI already accounts for 40-50% of total VOD activity. On December 31, we had over 566,000 customers with an interactive device.

Subscribers

                            31 Dec  30 Sep  Change in  31 Dec  Change %
Footprint(1)                  2013    2012    Q4 2013    2012     y-o-y
                            ------  ------  ---------  ------  --------
Homes passed                 4,247   4,237         10   4,213      0.8%
Analog TV only                 505     532       (27)     637   (20.7%)
  Consumer                     408     436       (28)     545   (25.0%)
  B2B                           96      96          1      92      4.9%
Analog and digital TV(2)     2,291   2,280         12   2,256      1.6%
  Consumer                   2,253   2,247          6   2,231      1.0%
  B2B                           38      33          6      24     57.9%
  Total TV customers         2,796   2,811       (15)   2,892    (3.3%)
    Consumer                 2,661   2,683       (22)   2,776    (4.1%)
    B2B                        135     128          6     116     15.8%
Digital pay TV subscribers     872     863          8     929    (6.2%)
  Consumer                     853     848          6     917    (6.9%)
  B2B                           18      16          3      12     48.7%

1. Operating data relating to our footprint and RGUs are presented as at the end of the period indicated.
2. Digital television RGUs equals the total number of standard TV subscribers who activated a smart card as at the end of the periods indicated. As a result, digital TV RGUs represents the number of subscribers who have access to our digital TV services. In any given period, not all of these digital TV RGUs will have subscribed to additional digital pay TV services. As at December 31, 2013, 872,000 of our total digital TV RGUs subscribed to one or more of our digital pay TV services.

Statement on discussions with Liberty Global

Following our announcement on December 12, we have continued discussions with Liberty Global regarding a potential acquisition of the Company. These discussions have progressed. Further announcements will be made if and when relevant. There is no certainty that any agreement will be reached.