However, the company’s total number of clients fell by an annual 5.8 percent in the first quarter, to 1.263 million, especially due to the fact that the company lost over 200,000 analog cable service users in 2008.
“Romanian operations registered an improved evolution in Q1 due to a stoppage of losses on the video segment, after a three quarter decline in the number of clients,” said a statement by Liberty Global, which includes UPC.
According to company officials, as of the first quarter of this year, clients are choosing land digital television services over analog cable services.
“We registered the highest increase on digital television services, and will continue to invest in network expansion on this segment. Practically speaking, the declines registered on the analog cable segment are clients who migrated to digital services,” Severina Pascu, Chief Financial Officer of UPC Romania, told Business Standard.
Thus, in January-March 2009, the company lost 37,200 analog cable clients, while gaining 37,400 digital television service users.
