Telenor Broadcast sees revenues slide as Canal Digital losses hit home

Nordic telco Telenor’s broadcast division saw its revenues slide by 4% in the second quarter, with pay TV service Canal Digital losing 12,000 customers, double the number of quarterly losses than for the same period last year.

Canal Digital turned in revenues of NOK1.057 billion for the quarter, down from NOK1.134 billion. A solid performance by Telenor Satellite, which saw revenues rise from NOK228 million to NOK245 million, failed to compensate for this, and the broadcast division’s overall revenues fell from NOK1.511 billion to NOK1.446 billion.

Terrestrial transmission towers unit Norkring’ revenues were flat at NOK267 million.

Overall, Telenor Broadcast’s EBITDA before other items fell from NOK500 million to NOK486 million.

Capex of NOK95 million in the quarter, up from NOK77 million, was mainly driven by upgrades in the DTT network to release the 700MHz frequency band for mobile purposes and battery back-up improvements in the Norkring tower infrastructure.