ONdigital said today it had 673,000 subscribers to its digital terrestrial platform, and expects this number to rise to 1 million by the end of the year. The pay-tv company, which is joint-owned by Carlton Communications and Granada, said that its sales had increased by 22% for the three-month period to the end of March.
A fivefold increase in sales for the year since March 1999 has been largely driven by the success of the group’s Prepaid package, announced in October last year (see ONdigital Sales Up By 66%).
Stuart Prebble, chief executive of the group, said: “Its been an excellent quarter. We are right on course to achieve our target of one million customers by the end of this year and two million by the end of 2002.”
The group is continuing to expand the range of services available on the digital terrestrial platform. The launch of two new sports channels earlier this year placed it at the forefront of sports broadcasting in the UK (see New Channels Give ONdigital’s Sports Coverage Top Place), and the group continues to enhance its sports profile. A statement this week referring to the Premier League’s tender document for television rights (see Premier League Bosses Agree More Televised Matches And Pay-Per-View) said: “We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our customers continue to be able to see all live televised Premiership matches.”
Enhancing its interactive products, the group launched an email service, ONmail, last month, and full internet access for subscribers is expected this year. Trial airings of interactive ads will broadcast on Carlton Food Network and Carlton Cinema from early May, with advertisers including Proctor & Gamble, the AA, and M&G Securities already signed up.
Further future plans include ONrequest, the group’s pay-per-view service with SDN, which is due to go on air in May, initially programming Hollywood movies, and a second games channel, ONgames2.
Of the 673,000 total subscribers, 16,000 households have yet to activate their smartcards, and 10,000 boxes have been installed for demonstration purposes.
The group’s main rival, SkyDigital, announced subscriber figures of 2.8 million last month (see SkyDigital Subscribers Rise To 2.8 Million).
ONdigital: 020 7819 8000
