upc cablecom reports ‘excellent” 2012
February 14, 2013
upc cablecom continued its strong growth trajectory in the fourth quarter of 2012: The company acquired a total of 54,800 new subscribers in premium TV options, Internet and telephony. These services grew by 206,000 subscribers throughout the whole of 2012. Switzerland’s biggest TV provider can also look back on a strong year financially. Revenue increased in the fourth quarter of 2012 by CHF 11 million year on year to a new record high of CHF 303 million (+3.8 per cent). Over the whole of the past business year, revenue rose by CHF 42.6 million (+3.7 per cent) to more than CHF 1.18 billion.
The operational highlight in the fourth quarter was on November 14th when the company switched all its TV subscribers to digital TV by abolishing encryption for its basic connection. Since then, all viewers with a modern television set including DVB-C receiver or an older set with a converter can watch the 55 digital channels in
upc cablecom’s basic package – many of which are in top HD quality. This comes for less than CHF 1 per day and includes also a free 2 Mbit/s Internet option. Switzerland’s biggest cable network operator thus increased the number of households with digital TV to almost 1.5 million in one fell swoop.
upc cablecom now boasts 594,500 Internet connections, which is 14,400 more than the third quarter of 2012 and 48,800 more than at the end of 2011. upc cablecom has also recorded strong growth in its telephony services. This segment now boasts 421,400 subscribers, which is 19,200 more than three months ago and 58,100 more than last year.
Subscriptions to premium television options have also risen noticeably, and now total 606,000. This is 21,200 new subscribers in comparison to the third quarter of 2012 and 99,100 more subscribers year on year.
Overall, the number of connections for premium TV options, Internet and telephony has risen by 54,800 in the past three months – and by an 206,000 in comparison to the previous year. The number of basic connections remained almost unchanged and totalled 1,448,500 households with digital TV, radio and analogue TV as per December 31st 2012.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, upc cablecom achieved revenue of more than CHF 300 million for the first time (CHF 303 million). The company’s revenue figures for 2012 amounted to more than CHF 1.18 billion, which represents an increase of CHF 42.6 million (+3.7 per cent) in comparison to the previous year. In the past business year, upc cablecom also invested more than CHF 200 million in the development of its own infrastructure in Switzerland.
Eric Tveter, CEO of upc cablecom, commented. “We had an excellent year… We have successfully implemented a number of initiatives and improved on many levels. For example, we abolished encryption for our basic connection which represents a real milestone in the history of Swiss television. In addition, we have further improved our levels of customer satisfaction and have acquired many new customers in all areas. This is in addition to valuable preparatory work for our new TV platform Horizon, which we successfully launched onto the Swiss market in early January. I am confident that 2013 will be another solid year.”