UPC: Internet and telephony offset video decline

The turnover of UPC Romania, the biggest cable TV operator on the domestic market, went up by 16.2% last year to 173.2 million euros, as a result of growth on the telephony and Internet segments, which offset the 5.8% decline in the number of users on the video segment, the operator’s main line of business. The growth rate of the UPC business was slower than in 2006, when the operator posted business worth 140 million euros, an increase of 26%. On the other hand, one of the biggest competitors of UPC, Romtelecom, announced lower revenues last year and mobile telephony operators also announced slower growth rates than in the previous years, after the market reached maturity. RCS&RDS, a strong rival to UPC, has still not announced last year’s financial results. At the end of 2007, UPC Romania’s portfolio numbered 1.337 million clients on the video segment (cable, digital cable and satellite TV), down 5.8% on 2006, according to the financial report of UPC Holding Netherlands, the majority shareholder of the Romanian company. At the end of 2007, the operator totalled 1,185 million clients on the cable TV segment, 37,400 subscribers on the digital cable TV segment and 115,500 satellite TV users. Compared with 2006, the number of cable TV clients went down 13%, while the portfolio of digital cable TV went up 467%. The number of digital TV users also went up 128.7%.