United Group sees solid subscriber and revenue growth

South-eastern European service provider United Group saw solid subscriber growth last year, while revenue increased by 63%.

The group, which owns broadband, mobile and pay TV networks in the western Balkans, Greece and Bulgaria, saw its revenue-generating unit base increase by 4% year-on-year to 11.334 million, driven by its acquisition of Vivacom in Bulgaria as well as organic growth.

The group’s cable subscriber base increased from 2.031 million to 2.1 million over the same period, while homes passed increased on an organic base by 8% to 3.984 million.

United Group’s revenue grew by 63% to €1.89 billion, while consolidated EBITDA was up by 60% to €696 million.

Blended ARPU fell by 11% year-on-year to €17.70 due to United Group’s acquisition of Vivacom in Bulgaria.

The group had 435,000 cable customers in Bulgaria, 213,000 in Slovenia, 735,000 in Serbia, 209,000 in Bosnia and 32,000 in Montenegro at the end of the year. About two thirds of customers overall took a bundled offering.

The group’s Total TV DTH satellite TV offering had 1013 million subscribers across the region at the end of the year.

International OTT service NetTV Plus, launched a decade ago to target a diaspora audience, had 100,000 subscribers at the end of last year.