Unitymedia to close down DTH platform

Jörn Krieger ©RapidTVNews | 15-06-2010

German cable operator Unitymedia will close down its DTH satellite platform arenaSAT on September 30. The company wants to focus on its core business of triple play services for cable households, Unitymedia said in a statement.

Subscribers will be informed about the move through a letter in the next few days. They can keep their receiver even if it was just rented from arenaSAT to continue receiving free-to-air channels.

The decision is no surprise. The strong decline in subscriber figures has led to speculation about closure of the platform on several occasions in the past, most recently two weeks ago.

The cable company, which was purchased by US-based media concern Liberty Global in January, launched arenaSAT in 2006 on Astra (19.2° East) after its surprise victory against pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland (then called Premiere) in the tender for the TV rights to domestic soccer league Bundesliga.

Since Sky Deutschland has been the exclusive rights holder again, subscriber numbers have dropped considerably. At the end of March, arenaSAT only had 51,000 subscribers - a year ago it still had 184,000.