Premiere hoping for subs growth

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German pay-TV operator Premiere is hoping that the changes to its encryption system will bring a strong increase in new subscribers.

“I’m convinced that we can turn 100,000 to 200,000 pirates into paying subscribers,” said CEO Michael Börnicke in Munich. Premiere lost more than 36,000 customers in the first quarter of 2008 and blamed security gaps in Nagravision, the encryption system it currently utilises. Manipulated digital receivers have allowed viewers to illegally receive Premiere’s programmes, prompting the company to introduce NDS’s as yet un-hacked system VideoGuard in parallel with a new, more secure version of Nagravision. The changes should be completed by the end of the third quarter.

Premiere estimates the number of its non-paying viewers to be several hundred thousand. According to Börnicke, the broadcaster hopes to have around 3.8 million direct subscribers by year-end. At the end of the first quarter this figure lay at 3.62 million.

At the same time, Börnicke confirmed his interest in the acquisition of commercial broadcaster Sat.1 in order to establish a strong foothold in free-to-air television: “Sat.1 would be the ideal combination – of that I still remain convinced,” he said. At the beginning of April Börnicke announced his interest in Sat.1, but received declinations from the channel’s umbrella company ProSiebenSat.1 as well as its major shareholders KKR and Permira.



Source: Rapid TV News