Sogecable is seeking to stop the subscriptions haemorrhage to its digital DTH platform Digital Plus by giving  free TV packages and channels to keep its subs. Those subscribed to basic services are being promoted to to superior packages for free, adding in many cases up to 20 more channels to the initial offer. The company has also reduced the cost of the iPlus rental decoder, from selling it at E400 in January 2009 to renting it for between E5 and E10 a month.

Over the last two months the platform lost 24,000 clients with a net loss of 645,000 over the last one and a half years, leaving the company with 1.76 million subscribers against 2.04 million in January 2009.

The expansion of IPTV platforms and the massive launch of DTT channels and the increasing availability of Internet TV channels are putting Digital Plus on the ropes.

The platform is also suffering from the consequences of the piracy. Recently, a Madrid judge ordered a man accused of offering pirated material on two web pages to post security of E4 million until his trial begins and ordered the pages be closed. The pages allegedly offered pirated codes and cards to access the pay-content of Digital Plus. The sentence is based on an estimate of the benefits obtained by the web pages and the losses registered by Digital Plus due to the crime.

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