Progress is slow for ITV Digital

By NICK GOODWAY FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

MONKEY, Johnny Vegas and Ryan Giggs in a pinny may have been the cult marketing hit of last year, but when it came to hard numbers even this formidable team had trouble keeping ITV Digital moving forward in a straight line.

Jointly owned by Granada and Carlton Communications, ITV Digital added a net 46,000, or just 4%, subscribers in the final three months of 2001, taking its total to 1.26m. Almost a quarter of its old subscribers left the broadcaster during the year as the churn rate rose from just over 22% to 24.9%.

The group said that churn 'remains within our forecast range' and analysts say that it could hit 30% at some point during this year.

The figures contrast sharply with last week's announcement from BSkyB, which said it added 218,000 subscribers in the same quarter, taking its base to 5.7m. Sky's churn was unchanged at 10.4%. But ITV Digital argues that its net cost of churn is lower than Sky's because installation costs are much less and set-top boxes can be recycled.

As part of the belt-tightening announced last year, 600 jobs are going at its Plymouth call centre, 50 more than was announced at the end of last year. That cuts the total workforce to around 1,800.

Meanwhile the ITV companies, the BBC and Government continue to thrash out the way forward for terrestrial digital television. ITV Digital said manufacturers were getting closer to launching cheaper set-top boxes to receive all the free-to-air channels, which would boost its ability to sell into homes.

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