Austar hit by economy and regional factors
New subscribers for the first quarter are slim compared to the corresponding period twelve months ago.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Subscription
Austar subscriber numbers have increased only slightly in the first quarter of 2009.
In the three months to March 31 it increased by 1970 to 722,240. In the economic downturn it is a slim figure compared to the corresponding quarter in 2008 of 9416 new subscribers.
Customer churn decreased by 0.01 of a percentage point to 1.52 per cent, Austar said.
Revenue rose 7 per cent to $163 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 9% to $55 million.
As a regional broadcaster, the company believes it was also affected by the fires in Victoria and floods in Queensland earlier this year.
“The first quarter of this year was always going to be challenging, but we are very pleased to report continued subscriber growth and strong financial results,” said chief executive, John Porter.
“Despite the challenges facing the retail sector, we will continue to see growth in our underlying business in 2009,” he said.
Mr Porter said local and international research showed “people are watching more TV than ever before”.
Source: The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald
9 Responses
Selectv is available in regionals isnt it?
Their website indicates: “all regions of mainland Australia.”
I don’t think Austar are a terrible company, they are not as strong as they need to be, Those figures are the furthest from what I expected.
How did the bushfires affect Austar?
The population of the area affected would be 0.00001% of Austar’s potential population reach.
If we had a choice between Foxtel and Austar then most Austar subscribers I know would be churning. As it is we can’t churn so I have no idea how that stat works.
yeh cant find the idea of having 20+ channels repeating it over and over for heaps of ca$h each month
How can you have ‘churn’ when there is no competitor?
Austar = a joke
This is what happens when there is no competition in the marketplace.
How could they not see growth when they have a captive market. In Austar’s broadcast areas it’s not like we have a choice for Pay TV provider, Foxtel or Austar! It’s Austar or….Austar..or nothing.