UPC: Premium TV services bring our clients back

UPC Romania, ranking second on the Romanian TV services market, saw its cable TV client base slightly narrow down in the fourth quarter as well, but the company maintains that overall the trend of its main business has improved, with clients moving to more expensive services (digital cable, digital video recorder and high definition TV). The operator ended the fourth quarter of 2009 with 1.07 million cable TV clients, down 1% from the previous quarter and 4% from 2008. However, in this figure, the number of users of digital cable, a more expensive service, reached 231,000, up 14% from the previous quarter and 110% from 2008. The decline posted on the analogue cable segment particularly comes from small cities, plagued by recession, where clients choose smaller cable operators, with tariffs of below 20 RON per month. UPC, however, says that the drop in the absolute number of clients was accompanied by a positive phenomenon for the company: clients’ shift to more expensive services and even the return of some former users to the network.