MONTREAL – Videotron added 29,000 digital TV customers for a total of 653,000 in the first quarter ended March 31, and also recorded net gains in Internet and telephony customers, according to financial results released Thursday.
Videotron attributed its digital TV subscriber growth to its content offering, which includes the largest selection of French-language HD channels in its service area and an expanded Hispano package with the addition of Nuevo Mundo TV for a total of 11 Spanish-language channels.
The cableco’s illico digital TV on-demand service was also popular, with nearly 434,000 paid and free orders per week for a quarterly total of 5,642,500 orders.
“Videotron’s strategy is to generate, incorporate and develop wide-ranging content that meets current and future customer needs, and to distribute it on an array of platforms, including illico on-demand. This is one of the major challenges Videotron’s people will face in 2007 in order to deliver expanding choice to customers wherever they are,” stated Videotron.
Videotron’s on-demand service will deliver exclusive content under agreements with the FrancoFolies de Montréal, the Just for Laughs Festival, and Concert Productions International, in association with Donald K. Donald Events, for the Genesis Turn It On Again concert at the Olympic Stadium in September 2007.
Videotron also said it was looking to “incorporate content from other platforms operated by its parent company, Quebecor Media Inc.”
More than 36,000 cable Internet subscribers were added in the first quarter for a total of 828,000 at March 31. Videotron also acquired 51,000 telephony customers in the quarter for a total of 449,000 as the service was gradually rolled out region by region.
Videotron had 20,000 activated wireless telephone service lines at March 31 – almost double the 12,000 lines at December 31, 2006.
The cableco also noted that its multi-product bundles continued to prove attractive in 2007, with more than 50% of its customers subscribing to two or more services.
Videotron’s operating income was up 26.5% in the first quarter of 2007, exceeding its 18.9% growth in the first quarter of 2006, according to Quebecor Inc. financials released Thursday. The cable segment generated revenues of $358.8 million in the quarter, a 19% or $57.2 million increase from the same quarter a year ago. Operating income was $149 million, up 26.5% or $31.2 million, due mainly to higher revenues, including increases in rates, which were partially offset by increases in some operating costs resulting from customer growth.
Videotron’s monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by $9.89, or 17.2%, to $67.37 in the first quarter of 2007 from $57.48 in the same period of 2006.
