African division helps Canal+ Group add over a million subscribers

Canal+ Group said that as of the end of September its total portfolio reached almost 14 million subscribers, up by a million year-on-year, following last year’s Polish merger between its Cyfra+ unit and TVN Group’s ‘n’ pay TV platform.

Announcing its results for the first nine months of 2013, Canal+ parent company Vivendi said that Canal+ Group’s growth was also helped by “good performances” in Africa and Vietnam.

Overall, Canal+ Group’s revenues were €3.857 billion, up 5.8% compared to the first nine months of 2012, which it attributed to the ‘n’ gains and the new activity from its former Bolloré-owned free-to-air channels D8 and D17.

D8 was singled out as a particularly strong performer, reaching an audience share of 3.2% in September, a 1.1 point year-on-year increase, which ranked “D8 first among the French digital terrestrial television channels for the first time ever.”

However, EBITA declined by 10.4% year-on-year to €647 million, including a €24 million hit from “transition costs” related to D8, D17 and ‘n’.

“The year-on-year change mainly resulted from an increase in programming costs, due to sustained investments in content and one additional calendar day in the French Ligue 1 soccer competition, as well as a slowdown in the economic environment which had a negative impact on the advertising market,” the firm said.