KDG cable subscribers down 207k in 2009

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
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UNTERFÖHRING — Kabel Deutschland (KDG), Germany’s largest cable operator, announced today its financial results for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2009 of its fiscal year 2009/2010.

As of December 31, 2009, we had 8.8 million Basic Cable subscribers and 9.0 million Basic Cable RGUs. A Basic Cable RGU refers to the source of revenues, and each Basic Cable service a subscriber receives counts as one RGU. The primary difference relates to a household which receives Basic Cable via a housing association and then directly subscribes to our digital access offer (Digitaler Empfang) which the household pays for directly. The described household would count as one Basic Cable subscriber and two Basic Cable RGUs.

A Premium TV subscriber is an individual who receives any of our Premium TV services, including a pay-TV offering or a DVR subscription. As of December 31, 2009, we had 795 thousand Premium TV subscribers and 1,039 thousand Premium TV RGUs, which represents an increase of 10.5% of our Premium TV RGUs as of December 31, 2008. A Premium TV RGU refers to the source of revenue, and each Premium TV service a subscriber receives counts as one RGU. For example, an individual who subscribes to pay-TV and DVR would count as two RGUs, but only one Premium TV subscriber.

Subscribers and RGUs (thousands):

                            As of December 31,    Year-on-year
                                2009      2008  Change       %
                            --------  --------  ------  ------
Basic Cable Subscribers      8,788.4   8,994.9  -206.6  -2.30%
  Direct Subscribers         7,337.2   7,411.5   -74.3  -1.00%
  Indirect Subscribers       1,451.1   1,583.4  -132.3  -8.35%

Premium TV RGUs              1,039.0     940.4    98.6  10.48%

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