Viasat Nordic satellite subscriber base continues to decline

Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (“MTG” or “the Group”) (Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Large Cap Market: MTGA, MTGB) today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2012.

Pay-TV Nordic

The Nordic pay-TV operations market and sell Viasat’s premium pay-TV packages and content on the Viasat satellite platform, the Viaplay online platform, and third party IPTV and cable networks. Viasat also distributes its 40 pay-TV channels via third party pay-TV networks.

Subscribers (000’s)

                                                                   2011                        2012
                                             --------------------------  --------------------------
                                                Q1     Q2     Q3     Q4     Q1     Q2     Q3     Q4
                                             -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
Premium subscribers                          1,048  1,048  1,042  1,058  1,039  1,031  1,023  1,019
- of which, satellite subscribers              653    645    640    638    625    612    603    592
- of which third party networks subscribers    394    403    402    421    414    419    420    427
Basic satellite subscribers                     42     40     39     38     42     44     46     46
Satellite value-added service subscribers
 ViasatPlus                                    163    172    179    188    191    192    193    192
 Multi-room                                    237    239    240    250    251    251    252    250
 High definition                               232    255    276    297    313    321    336    341

The Group’s premium subscriber base, when excluding the undisclosed and rapidly growing Viaplay online subscriber base, was lower q-o-q and y-o-y as anticipated, as the growth in the third party network subscriber base did not fully compensate for the decline in the satellite subscriber base.

The Viaplay online pay-TV service has continued to develop according to plan with new versions of the Viaplay ‘App’ launched on the Apple iOS and Google Android platforms. Viaplay has also now been made available on the Sony PlayStation®3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 games consoles for the first time.

Pay-TV Emerging Markets

Viasat’s Emerging Market pay-TV operations market and sell pay-TV packages on the Viasat satellite platforms in the Baltics and Ukraine, and on the joint venture Raduga TV satellite platform in Russia. Viasat also distributes 32 channels via third party pay-TV networks to subscribers in 31 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and the United States. The Viaplay online pay-TV service was launched in Russia in March 2012.

Subscribers (000’s)

                                                      2011                            2012
                            ------------------------------  ------------------------------
                                Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4      Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4
                            ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Satellite subscribers          438     438     460     532     529     534     543     584
Mini-pay TV subscriptions   58,197  61,105  61,177  64,285  66,012  72,816  75,430  83,950

Viasat’s Emerging Markets satellite pay-TV platforms added 52,000 net new subscribers y-o-y and 41,000 net new subscribers in the fourth quarter alone, following seasonally high subscriber intake on the Russian and Ukrainian satellite platforms. The wholesale channel business added over 19 million subscriptions in 2012 and over 8 million subscriptions in the fourth quarter alone, with particularly high growth in the Russian base.