ITV Digital claims that it will reach its break even target of 2004, despite the widely reported difficulties experienced by the recently rebranded digital TV business.
It was announced today that 48,000 new subscribers signed up during the last quarter, bringing the total at 30 June to 1.1 million and overtaking previously gloomy forecasts. Churn rate has been brought below forecast level to 23%. However, this churn is still particularly high and well above the 9-10% churn currently being experienced by Sky Digital.
ITV chief executive Stuart Prebble described the figures as ‘solid’, adding: “We are delivering against our targets. The rebranding is a major step in the evolution of this business and the decision to put the powerful ITV brand behind the platform is an indication of our shareholders’ commitment to it.”
ITV Digital (formerly ONdigital) is 50:50 owned by ITV giants Granada and Carlton Communications. Their shareholders’ commitment was very much in doubt last month when it was suggested that a number of key Granada shareholders would, in principle, endorse a withdrawal from the business (see Granada Faces Investor Pressure Over ONdigital, Reports FT).
The Q2 subscriber growth of 48,000 is in line with ABN Amro analysts’ expectations.
