ONdigital Seen With 380,000 to 400,000 Subscribers at Sept 30
London, Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- ONdigital, the U.K. pay-TV service owned by Carlton Communications Plc and Granada Group Plc, will report tomorrow that it signed up between 380,000 and 400,000 customers by the end of September, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The service, which started in November, speeded up subscriptions after eliminating the 200-pound ($330) charge for its decoder boxes on May 28 and because it has exclusive TV rights to show some European Champions League soccer games, according to five analysts. Ondigital had 247,000 customers on June 30 and is aiming for 2 million after three years.
``The free set-top box offer has really stimulated the digital market and ONdigital of late has also had the UEFA Champions League,' said David Adair, an analyst at HSBC Securities. ``I think they need to be at 400,000 or even more.'
ONdigital, which delivers more than 30 channels through a regular antenna, is targeting the 70 percent of U.K. households that have resisted cable TV and British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc's satellite service. Digital technology allows broadcasters to offer more channels, clearer pictures and interactive services, such as e-mail and shopping.
The figures will be the first presented by Stuart Prebble, who became chief executive July 13 after Stephen Grabiner quit to join venture capital firm Apax Partners & Co.
More set top boxes sold
ONdigital said July 8 that it had signed up 247,000 customers by June 30, although only 204,000 of them had actually installed the service and started paying. Analysts estimated that ONdigital will have as much as 400,000 customers installed by Sept. 30.
BSkyB's SkyDigital had 1.2 million customers signed up by July 31, of which 1 million had the service installed.
Oct/06/1999 3:09 |
