Q2 2008: Premiere increases revenues to EUR 272.4 million

Thursday, August 7th, 2008
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MUNICH — In Q2 2008 Premiere AG (PRE.XE)’s revenues increased 18.9 percent to EUR 272.4 million (Q2 2007: EUR 229.1 million).

As in the Christmas season 2007 and the first three months of 2008, piracy continued to affect performance in Q2. As of June 30, 2008, Premiere had a total of 4,157,810 customers: 3,554,696 direct subscribers (June 30, 2007: 3,473,174) and 603,114 indirect arena customers. Compared to Q2 of the previous year, the number of direct subscribers rose by 2.3 percent. Compared with Q1 2008, Premiere registered a decrease of 84,657 customers (Q1 2008: 4,242,467). 

Subscribers                                              Change
                             Q2 2008    Q2 2007  (absolute)   (in %)
                           ---------  ---------  ----------   ------
Subscribers as of June 30  4,157,810  3,473,174     684,636     19.7
Churn rate (rolling)           18.3%      19.5%         1.2        -

Encryption system: Smartcard swap for satellite customers in progress

In the last few months Premiere has developed and successfully tested an extensive security package together with its encryption partners NDS (NASDAQ: NNDS) Videoguard and Nagravision (SWX:KUD.VX). The second phase of this project, during which the smartcards of satellite customers will be swapped, started a few days ago and will be completed by the end of the third quarter. All receivers that can be updated to NDS Videoguard® will now be configured with a new software. Börnicke: “The conversion is going according to schedule and the security gap will be closed soon. Anyone who has purchased a hacked receiver will soon realize that Premiere is only be available to Premiere subscribers.”

More: Earnings Release