Kabel Deutschland adds 76,000 pay TV subscribers in 2013

UNTERFOEHRING — Kabel Deutschland Holding AG (‘Kabel Deutschland’, ‘KDH’ or ‘the Company’), Germany’s largest cable network operator, today released its consolidated financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2013 of fiscal year 2013/14 ending March 31, 2014.

The recovery of the Premium TV business continued in Q3 with 86 thousand RGU net adds quarter on quarter after a weaker H1: The Company added 24 thousand RGUs in Q1 and 55 thousand RGUs in Q2; both quarters were impacted by the un-encryption of private SD channels and extraordinary churn of Kabel BW Pay TV wholesale customers. In total, Premium TV RGUs grew to 2,235 thousand end of December 2013, plus 265 thousand or 13.5% year on year. HD Private increased to 1,610 thousand activated smartcards (versus 1,068 thousand one year earlier). As a result of better subscriber mix and growing Premium TV penetration, the total blended TV ARPU per subscriber improved to €10.83 in the third quarter, up by €0.40 or 3.8% from €10.43 in the previous year.

Kabel Deutschland’s direct subscriber base expanded to 7.6 million (plus 24 thousand net adds year on year) out of a total of 8.4 million unique subscribers. The overall RGU base increased by 641 thousand or 4.5% from the previous year and totaled 14.8 million end of December 2013. Due to the rising penetration of New Services, the RGU per subscriber ratio climbed to 1.76 (1.66 one year ago) and the total blended ARPU per subscriber increased to €17.30, up by €1.25 or 7.8% year on year.

Kabel Deutschland Cable Subscribers and RGUs

                                                 December 31,
                                          -------------------  
As of                               Unit   2009   2010   2011
                                   -----  -----  -----  -----
Subscribers
 Direct Basic Cable subscribers    #'000  7,337  7,309  7,214
 Indirect Basic Cable subscribers  #'000  1,451  1,278  1,151

RGUs
 Premium TV                        #'000  1,039  1,222  1,548
  Thereof Pay TV                   #'000    860    962  1,082
  Thereof DVR                      #'000    179    261    466
 Basic Cable*                      #'000  9,052  8,936  8,810

                                          Dec-12  Mar-13  Jun-13  Sep-13  Dec-13
                                          ------  ------  ------  ------  ------
Subscribers
 Direct Basic Cable subscribers    #'000   7,207   7,194   7,179   7,165   7,149
 Indirect Basic Cable subscribers  #'000     934     897     822     805     798

RGUs
 Premium TV                        #'000   1,970   2,070   2,094   2,149   2,235
  Thereof Pay TV                   #'000   1,267   1,303   1,290   1,306   1,343
  Thereof DVR                      #'000     704     767     804     843     892
 Basic Cable                       #'000   8,659   8,617   8,498   8,440   8,392

On October 14, 2013, the voluntary public takeover offer for KDH by Vodafone was settled and completed.

On December 10, 2013, Kabel Deutschland introduced triple play packages for new customers combining Internet & Phone with Premium TV and Basic Cable.