StarHub loses 11,000 payTV subscribers

These subscribers have completed their contract, pulling profit down by 27.6%.

StarHub's mobile and pay-TV businesses continued to be under pressure while residential broadband and fixed enterprise businesses have progressed sideways. The telco giant lost around 11,000 pay-TV subscribers, the fifth consecutive quarter of sequential contraction. As UOB Kay Hian noted, StarHub said that a larger-than-usual proportion of its pay-TV subscriber base completed their contracts. It also faces competition from alternative viewing options, such as OTT video services. 

This has badgered its overall bottomline, which reported a 27.6% YoY decline to $86m.

Meanwhile, the brokerage firm noted that both its post-paid and pre-paid revenues have suffered contractions, with overall mobile revenue falling 3.6%. 

"Post-paid ARPU declined by 2.8% yoy to S$69 due to reduced contributions from roaming and iDD. Pre-paid ARPU declined by 11.1% yoy to S$16 due to lower usage for voice and iDD," UOB stated.

On the other hand, its residential broadband segment's recovery has reached a plateau, with the paltry 2,000 subscriber gain at a flat ARPU at $37. 

"23,000 subscribers migrated to fibre broadband but it did not have a visible impact on ARPU. The penetration for fibre broadband expanded by 4.6ppt to 73.9% in 3Q16," UOB explained.