Earnings: Tiscali H1 Revenues Up 24 Percent On Broadband Growth

Tiscali (BIT:TIS) today reported H1 revenues of 393.1 million euros (£269.2 million), a 24 percent increase on the same period a year ago. It said growth was largely driven by its broadband business, which makes up 67 percent of Tiscali’s revenues overall. For the period ended 30 June, the group, which has operations in Italy and the UK, reported a net profit of 22.4 million euros (£15.3 million), compared to a net loss of 74.2 million euros (£50.8 million) a year earlier.

Media services revenue up: “Media and value-added services” revenue was up to 24.5 million euros (16.8 million pounds) from 19.8 million euros (£13.6 million), but its percentage of overall revenue stayed the same at a smallish six percent. Tiscali launched its Tiscali TV product in February, but given that some of the more high profile content deals that Tiscali has announced (for example with Setanta Sports and Sky) have been relatively recent, and that the service is only now available nationally, the affects of these on media revenues might not be felt until later this year. It’s aiming for 5 million customers from a much more modest base of 50,000.

— Tiscali says it has completed integration of the Video Networks unit (which retails as Homechoice), the IPTV company it acquired in the UK in August 2006.

The company now has 1.55 million subscribers in the UK, with over two million overall. In total, the UK market makes up 75 percent of its broadband customer base and 65 percent of its revenues, or 253.2 million euros (£173.3 million), up 23 percent compared to 205.7 million euros (£140.8 million) in the first half of 2006. Tiscali and Telecom Italia entered into an MVNO agreement at the end of July; Tele2 currently has 2.5 million customers.

— Taking into account the company’s integration of the Pipex customer base in the UK, Tiscali is projecting full year revenues of 930 million euros (£636.7 million) for 2007.

— Tiscali’s position as an MVNO in Italy might get a further boost with reports that it might be interested in buying up the Italian assets of Tele2.

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