No increase in subscribers for Sweden's Boxer in the first quarter

At the end of March, Boxer had 709,000 digital TV subscribers, the same number as at the end of December 2007. During the past year, from the end of March to the end of March, Boxer has, however, increased the number of its customers by 37,000, equivalent to annual growth of 5%.

“Sweden is a mature market for standard digital TV and the competition between the platforms is getting tougher. We are selling well but also losing customers. Therefore, it is important for us to offer new channels and new services such as Push Video on Demand and for us to grow on new markets,” says Per Norman, Boxer’s CEO.

Since 2000, Boxer has increased the number of its customers every quarter, but the rate of increase has decreased year by year since the peak year of 2005. Virtually all households outside the cable TV networks now have digital TV and competition is tough between Boxer, the satellite operators and Telia, which has grown fast with its IPTV platform.

On 1 April, the Swedish Radio and TV Authority (Radio- och TV-verket – RTVV) decided that a number of new channels would start to broadcast with the new, more efficient MPEG-4 technology during the year. Push Video on Demand (PVOD) involves downloading programmes onto viewers’ recordable digital boxes overnight when the network has residual capacity. RTVV has said that it is intending to invite applications for licences for PVOD. On 27 March, Boxer was granted a licence by the Danish Government to be a pay TV operator in the future Danish digital TV network for 12 years.

“We are planning to start selling interesting new channels for the terrestrial network during the year. We are also planning to introduce PVOD fast as we think that it is an excellent way to broadcast films, for example. In 2009, Denmark will be a new market that will boost our growth,” says Per Norman.