Rostelecom grows pay TV presence

Russian telco Rostelecom grew its pay TV subscriber base to 5.5 million at the end of the first quarter, up over 600% year-on-year thanks to the addition of 4.6 million subscribers from cable operator NTC, which it acquired in February.

Rostelecom’s broadband base grew by 33% year-on-year to 7.4 million, while mobile subscribers fell from 15.2 million to 12.4 million thanks in part to the introduction of a new churn policy.

Rostelecom’s revenues for the quarter were RUB72.4 billion (€1.8 billion), up 8%, with net income growing 6% to RUB10.6 billion.

The figures include the earnings of the regional telcos merged into the company from state holding company Svyazinvest – North-West Telecom, CenterTelecom, Southern Telecommunications, VolgaTelecom, Uralsvyazinform, Sibirtelecom and Far East Telecom – just after the end of the quarter.