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Munich (pte025/26.02.2003/15:45) - Germany's Premiere pay-TV channel http://www.premiere.de closed the past year with an ebitda of minus 340m euros, signalling an improvement from losses of 880m euros in 2001.
The channel's head Georg Kofler considers the company to have achieved turnaround. He pointed out that up to 77 per cent of the company's losses fell into the first half of 2002, which was characterised by "radical restructuring measures". He said cost cuts of up to 508m euros had only begun to take effect in the second half of the year.
"In spite of a difficult consumer climate, we have shown that Premiere can be successful on the German market," said Kofler.
Premiere's turnover has climbed 4 per cent to 826m euros, and Kofler expects the next year to bring an operating loss of under 80m euros. The number of subscribers is predicted to increase to 2.9 million by the end of 2003, helping the company achieve double-digit turnover growth to about 900m euros. Internal reports paint an optimistic picture of the first half of 2004, with operating profits instead of losses.
These expectations are based on a positive trend in the fourth quarter of 2003, during which the net number of subscribers reached 153,000. Over the past twelve months the rate of cancellation has declined to 13.9 per cent and turnover per subscriber has climbed by 7.3 per cent to 25.39 euros per month.
Premiere further managed to renew its contracts with Hollywood studios and the sports industry under more optimal conditions.
At the end of 2002 Premiere had a total of 2,596 million customers.
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