[Satellite TODAY 08-14-09] Sky Deutschland suffered major losses in the second quarter of 365.8 million euros ($518.16 million), the company announced in its 2009 second quarter financial results released Aug. 13.
    The German pay-TV operator attributed the loss to its decision to discontinue the Premiere brand. The Premiere trademark was written off in Q2 2009, which had a negative net effect of 253.9 million euros ($359.65 million).
    The operator ended the quarter with 2.344 million subscribers, a reduction of 7,000 compared to the end of the first quarter. Its overall revenues for the quarter to the end of June were 230.6 million euros ($326.65 million), down over 20 million euros ($28.33 million) compared to the same quarter last year.
    Despite the results, Mark Williams, Sky Deutschland’s CEO, said he was optimistic that the operator will soon turn these figures around. “We are very pleased with progress since the successful launch of Sky on 4 July, with awareness of the Sky brand very quickly exceeding 50 per cent. In these first few weeks, we have seen a very positive reaction from both our existing customers upgrading to the new expanded range of Sky services, including our new comprehensive HD offer, as well as a strong increase in the rate of subscriber additions,” he said, in a statement.

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