Telenet announces First Half 2008 results

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Telenet logo

MECHELEN — Telenet Group Holding NV (“Telenet” or the “Company”) (Euronext Brussels: TNET) announces its consolidated results under International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (“EU GAAP”) for the six months ended June 30, 2008.

Digital television

Subscriber base. As of June 30, 2008, we reported a total of 479,000 subscribers to our digital television service (iDTV), representing a net increase of 88,000 subscribers for the first half of 2008. Compared to June 30, 2007, our iDTV base grew by 169,000 or 55%. These strong subscriber additions were in particular driven by attractive set top box rental schemes introduced in March 2008. Our second quarter subscriber additions were primarily generated through rented set top boxes, while in the first quarter the majority were sold.

In addition to iDTV, we have 22,000 subscribers to premium Pay TV content received through an alternative platform on the Partner Network.

ARPU and revenue trend. During the second quarter of 2008, we continued to see strong progress in total video”on”demand transactions, up by 78% compared to the corresponding prior year period. During the same period the number of paying transactions increased by 92%. Each of our digital television subscribers registered an average of 3.6 transactions per month in the second quarter of 2008, compared to 3.2 for the prior year period. Having seen this ratio increase solidly for three consecutive quarters indicates that new customers are increasingly enjoying the benefits of video”on”demand. Our digital TV ARPU for the second quarter remained fairly flat, on top of the basic cable television ARPU.

Total premium television revenue generated by both our digital TV and PayTV customers reached €37.1 million for the first half of 2008, up from €29.6 million for the same period in 2007, an increase of 25% year”on”year. This revenue comprises additional services such as on”demand and premium and thematic channel pack subscriptions, and comes on top of the basic TV subscription revenue.

Operational highlights (000 serviced premises):

For the six months ended    June 2008   June 2007   Change
                            ---------   ---------   ------
Total Cable TV                  1,667       1,723      -3%
  Analog Cable TV               1,188       1,414     -16%
  Digital Cable TV (iDTV)         479         309      55%

More: Earnings Release