Premiere Cuts Losses as Subscribers Rise

Premiere, Germany's only pay-television channel, said Thursday that it was able to narrow its losses in the first three months of the current year as a result of increased revenues and higher subscriber numbers. Premiere said in a statement it booked net loss of 3.4 million euros ($4.3 million) in the period from January to March, compared with a loss of a bottom-line loss of 41.4 million euros a year earlier. At operating level, Premiere even swung back into profit, booking positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 22.7 million euros, compared with a year-earlier loss of 1.8 million euros. The company, which went public in March, was able to lift revenues by 10.3 percent to 247.4 million euros in the first quarter while subscriber numbers were up 11.6 percent. The proceeds from the initial public offering (IPO) enabled Premiere to cut its debt to 83.6 million euros at the end of March, compared with 370.2 million euros at the end of 2004.