Intn’l pay channels boost Canal+

Overseas pay TV operations and domestic free-to-air channels lifted Canal+’s full-year operational and financial results despite the flat performance of domestic pay TV in 2013.

Canal+ added 249,000 net subscribers in the year to December, taking its total to 10.4 million taking a total of 14.7 million services. The increase was wholly attributable to overseas growth, where the company grew its customer base by 275,000.

In France, the pay TV operator’s sub base declined slightly to 6.1 million in what the operator called “a challenging economic and competitive environment”. Canal+ nevertheless managed to grow its domestic net ARPU slightly to €44.20, up from €43.20 in 2012.

The success of free-to-air channels D8 and D17 contributed to Canal+’s top-line growth and the channels aggregeated an audience share of 4.7% over the year.

Content arm StudioCanal also grew its revenues thanks to higher TV sales and international rights sales, in particular for films Non-Stop and Hunger Games 2 in Germany.

Overall revenues for the full year stood at €5.3 billion, up 5.9% year-on-year but down 0.5% on a like-for-like basis and at constant exchange rates.

EBITA was down 1.9% to €661 million, excluding transition costs for the FTA channels and new operations in Poland.

Parent company Vivendi turned in revenues of €22.135 billion, up 0.2% at constant currency and down 2% at actual currency, and EBITA of €2.433 billion, down 20.6% at constant currency or 23.1% at actual currency, thanks in large part to the performance of struggling telecom arm SFR.