Spain’s ONO subs up, revenue down
March 2, 2011
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain’s largest cable company ONO increased its subscribers in 2010 but total revenues and profits dropped by 2.7 per cent to €1.472 billion and 7.1 per cent to €47 million, respectively, with an EBITDA decreasing 0.8 per cent to €725 million.
The company ended the year with 4.31 million residential subs (triple play), up 2.3 per cent and an ARPU of €51.5, up 1.1 per cent.
Its Internet broadband service experienced the highest growth in terms of subscribers with a 4.1 per cent increase to 1.38 million followed by its telephony service with a growth of 1.2 per cent to 1.68 million. ONO’s pay-TV service, though, lost 22,000 clients in 2010, to 953,000 subs (representing 52.7 per cent of all its customers), although in the last quarter the company managed to capture 5,000 new subs, reversing the downward trend. New pay-TV channels like Gol TV (with 127,000 clients) and Canal Plus (19,000 clients) have given a boost to pay-TV subscribers in the last quarter.
ONO will be launching new TV services over the next few months including HDTV channels and a new set-top-box with added-value capabilities following its recent agreement with TiVo.