Cablecom - 300,000 customers with digital TV

ZURICH — Cablecom’s growth shows no signs of slowing. At the end of the first quarter of 2008, the number of digital TV customers exceeded the 300,000 mark. Cablecom also gained a significant number of Internet and fixed line network telephony customers too.

Compared with the end of 2007, cablecom digital TV customers increased by 47,000 to 300,000. The strong growth in the first quarter of 2008 was because 22,000 set-top boxes were sold instead of only being rented out. The number of purely analogue TV customers declined by 41,000, similarly to the previous quarter. However the majority of these customers switched to digital TV. On balance, the total number of all cablecom TV customers rose slightly.

Cablecom also gained more customers for the Internet. This figure increased by 13,000 to 468,000. Only at the beginning of the year, cablecom launched the fastest and most affordably-priced Internet offers in the whole of Switzerland. The telephony range also continues to be successful – in a market that is tending to shrink. In the first quarter of 2008, around 10,000 new customers chose a cablecom fixed line network telephone.

Sales climbed 5.2 percent compared with last year

An increase in customers for all products also had a positive impact on sales. In the first quarter of 2008, sales totalled 269 million Swiss francs, or 5.2 percent up on the same period last year.

Sales in million CHF

Q1/2008  Q1/2007  Difference in %
-------  -------  ---------------
269          256             +5.2

Customers in thousands

                                    Difference
                   As per 31.3.08   In Q4/2007      In %
                   --------------   ----------     -----
Analogue TV                  1258          -41      -3.1
Digital television*           300          +47**   +18.6
Total TV                     1558           +6      +0.3
Internet (hispeed)            468          +13      +2.8
Telephony (digital phone)     298          +10      +3.3

*Analogue TV customers with digital television (DTV) are only counted as DTV customers.
**Including boxes sold for the first time (22,000)