Strong pay TV performance compensates soft ad market for TVN

Polish pay TV platform ‘n’ saw its first-quarter revenues grow by 27% year-on-year and its subscriber base increase by 15% to 830,000.

‘n’ posted revenues of PLN176 million (€45 million) for the quarter, with post-paid subscribers contributing PLN33 million to top-line growth, thanks in part to a 5% increase in ARPU. TVN’s pre-paid HD offering TNK counted 38,000 customers and contributed PLN5 million to revenue. Parent company TVN posted revenue of PLN582 million, up 7%, with revenues from its TV channels flat year-on-year. Revenues from online activities were up 12% to PLN58 million.

“TVN Group performance in the first quarter primarily reflects the diversity of our business model and the progress we have made in our pay TV business over last twelve months,” said TVN CEO Markus Tellenbach. “‘n’ platform is the single largest contributor to the group’s revenue and EBITDA increases, reconfirming our strategic decision to diversify into non-advertising revenue sources. However, we continue to benefit from growth in advertising with our online business delivering double-digit growth rates in both the top line and EBITDA profitability, in line with our expectations. While the start to the 2011 TV advertising market was softer than the industry expected we have taken a number of steps to maintain our leadership position in audience whilst securing profitability.”