StarHub pay TV subscribers down 2,300 in 2013

SINGAPORE — StarHub Ltd today announced its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2013.

Compared to 4Q-2012, Pay TV revenue in this quarter was S$2.1 million or 2.1% higher at S$99.7 million, from increased advertising revenue. For the full year, Pay TV revenue was S$10.8 million or 2.7% lower at S$385.5 million. The YoY decrease was mainly due to lower subscription revenue and advertising revenue. 2012 revenue was also boosted by the one-off revenue from the UEFA EURO event in 1H-2012.

Pay TV ARPU at S$52 for the quarter was higher when compared to S$51 in 4Q-2012. For the full year, the monthly ARPU was 1.1% lower when compared to last year’s ARPU at S$52.

For the quarter, we added 2,100 subscribers to our Pay TV base as we continued to market the availability of the Barclays Premier League (BPL) sport content, cross-carried on our Pay TV platform for the new 2013/2014 – 2015/2016 seasons which kicked off in 3Q-2013. This resulted in our Pay TV subscriber base increasing to 533,000 subscribers as at 31 December 2013. Compared to a year ago, this was 2,300 subscribers or 0.4% lower as a result of the intense competition for viewership.

                                                             YoY
                                          Quarter ended   Incr/
                                 31 Dec  30 Sep  31 Dec  (Decr)
Pay TV operating statistics        2013    2013    2012       %
                                 ------  ------  ------  ------
Number of residential Pay TV
customers (in thousands)            533     531     536   (0.4)
ARPU (S$ per month)                  52      51      51   (1.1)
Average monthly churn rate         0.8%    1.0%    1.3%       -
StarHub's penetration             42.5%   42.6%   43.6%       -

Pay TV monthly average churn also trended lower at 0.8% for the quarter and for the full year period, averaged 1.0% per month, down from 1.3% and 1.2% in the corresponding periods last year.