[Satellite TODAY Insider 02-28-11] Sky Deutschland added more than 130,000 subscribers in its 2010 fourth quarter to end the year with nearly 2.7 million subscribers in Germany and Austria, the operator announced in its 2010 full-year results issued Feb. 24.
    Sky Deutschland’s 2010 fourth quarter subscriber gains were a drastic improvement compared to its 2009 fourth quarter increase of less than 40,000 subscribers and represented a majority of the 183,000 subscribers the operator picked up this entire year. Sky Deutschland also saw full-year revenues increase 8 percent to 977.8 million euros ($1.35 billion) over last year’s results.
    The operator also announced that it would launch a live 24/7 HD sport news channel Sky Sport News HD next winter, which it claims will be the first channel of its kind in Germany and Austria. 
    UBS Media Equity Analyst Polo Tang told Satellite TODAY Insider that the operator’s three-year 48 million euro ($66.1 million) investment to launch the channel was the most significant news delivered in its fourth quarter financial results.
    “Strategically, we see this as a positive move, and it will help extend Sky’s leadership in sports and HD. However, downgrades will have come as a negative surprise to the market. Sky implied continued growth in gross adds toward 650,000 subscribers in 2011. UBS estimates are currently flat at 600,000. Assuming churn remains at about 0.12 percent, underlying upgrades more than offset the additional investment in Sky Sports News HD from 2012 onwards, with small net downgrades in 2011,” Tang said.

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