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Foxtel subscribers grow again, but more slowly

Foxtel’s subscriber base has continued to grow, the pay TV company said today, although the speed at which it is doing so has declined.  

Foxtel now has 1.63m subscribers.

At the same time last year it had 1.54m, which had risen to 1.59m when Foxtel last updated the market six months ago.

But the growth rate has been slowing. In August 2007, the company said subscriber base had risen by 12.4% on the previous year. This rate was down to 6.9% growth by August 2008. And for the last 12 months it was a 5.8% growth.

All of the growth came from Foxtel’s direct customers which were up 8%. Wholesale subscribers – a smaller part of Foxtel’s customer base – were down 15%, part of an ongoing trend.

The company also announced a growth in TV revenue from $1.43bn to $1.56bn. Net profit before tax was $135m – down from last year’s $157m. The company said that this was because of increased charges related to more customers taking iQ boxes. The EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was up from $351m to $406m.

More than three-quarters of new customers take an iQ recording device rather than the basic service, the company said. A total of 43% of Foxtel-managed subscribers now have the iQ.

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