Freenet, the German media company, is expecting its DVB-T2 platform to reach more than one million paying customers by the end of 2018. This was announced at the Freenet Capital Market Day 2017 on 12th April at Media Broadcast in Cologne.
Freenet TV was launched last month, as part of the deployment of the new generation DTT platform in Germany, (Media Broadcast ‘Magic Night’ Goes to Plan) and offers around 20 commercial HD TV channels including the channels of RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 for €5.75 ($6.11) per month.
At the end of last month, around 1.2 to 1.5 million households had migrated to DVB-T2 with 160,000 signed up for Freenet TV as paying customers, despite the package being free of charge until 1st July.
It is estimated that by the end of June, 1.7 to 2.2 million DVB-T2 households and more than 500,000 Freenet TV customers will be signed up. By the end of the year, the number of DVB-T2 households is expected to rise to more than 2.5 million, with the number of Freenet TV customers growing to more than 800,000. By the end of 2018, Freenet estimates that there will be more than 1 million Freenet TV customers.
It is expected that the revenues for Freenet TV this year, will amount to $12.7 to $17 million, and to rise to $37 to $53 million next year.
Around 3.4 million households in Germany are currently using DTT, and are affected by the transition from DVB-T to DVB-T2. Freenet just does not see them as the potential customer, but also wants to attract viewers currently using cable or satellite.
Freenet also wants to attract customers affected by the upcoming analogue switch-off on cable or the termination of SD distribution on the Astra satellite system (19.2° East) that could take place in 2021 or 2022. Other potential gains are seen where households start to use the Freenet TV USB stick for their second or third TV sets.
It also emerged at the Freenet Capital Market Day, that discussions are taking place with Sky Deutschland to make the pay-TV broadcaster’s content available on Freenet TV Connect.
Waipu.tv launched an IPTV service last year in Germany, and at the end of last month had 146,000 users, of which 23,000 were paying customers. By the end of June this year, Freenet expects that there will be more than 25,000 registered and over 50,000 paying users. The IPTV service offers more than 50 TV channels in SD and HD quality including a recording function. The Waipu.tv basic package is free of charge, but there are two subscription packages of $5.30 and $16 per month. At the end of the year it is expected that there will be more than 500,000 registered and around 100,000 paying users on Waipu.tv.
