MUMBAI, India, Jan. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Videocon d2h Limited (NASDAQ: VDTH), India's fastest growing pay TV company² (\"Videocon d2h\" or the \"Company\") announced its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

Highlights for the quarter ended December 31, 2015:

• Subscription and activation revenue grew 26.0% year on year to INR 6.65 billion;
• Revenue from operations grew 21.6% year on year to INR 7.31 billion;
• Adjusted EBITDA grew 42.2% year on year to INR 2.01 billion;
• Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 390 basis points year on year to 27.4%;
• ARPU³ grew 8.2% year on year to INR 211;
• Gross and net subscribers increased by 0.67 million and 0.43 million subscribers during the quarter, respectively;
• Closing gross subscribers at 14.95 million and net subscribers base at 11.27 million; and
• Churn came in at 0.73% per month

In the third quarter, Videocon d2h continued to successfully seize the Indian digital pay TV opportunity, delivering superior content, strong high definition offerings and superior customer service to around 15 million subscribers. As the fast-growing Indian economy creates new pay TV households, the company believes direct to home (DTH) services are increasing their market share in this potential 100 million plus pay TV subscriber market. Videocon d2h's strategy is focused on driving revenue and EBITDA growth while investing in building a durable foundation for strong long term, profitable growth.

Management's success in building a pan-India distribution channel, strong customer value proposition, superior service orientation, strong brand presence - and track record of introducing leading technology and innovative product and service offerings - highlight its commitment to long term market leadership.

Commenting on the results, Mr. Dhoot said, \"I am delighted the company reported EBITDA growth of over 42% in the quarter compared to last year. This is a result of strong subscriber and ARPU growth and our continued focus on margin improvement, in line with our expectations. We believe we are amongst the fastest growing media companies in the world delivering exceptional performance quarter after quarter.

During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our content offering and added new channels on our platform. We recently added two transponders ahead of schedule. This further strengthens our content offering, which is one of our key competitive advantages. With this additional bandwidth we will continue to add more regional and HD channels to our platform in times to come.\"

Speaking on the Phase III digitization implementation, Mr. Anil Khera, CEO of Videocon d2h, said, \"Phase III digitalization has begun. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting maintained their deadline and instructed broadcasters to switch off analog signals in Phase III digitization areas. In the first few days of January 2016, we saw strong pick up in subscriber additions in cities that come under Phase III digitization. Recently, a few state high courts issued a stay order on implementation of Phase III digitization for 1-3 months. This was in line with our expectations of the digitization being a staggered process.

We estimate around 50 million television homes come under Phase III digitization, of which 24-25 million television homes are already on the digital platform. Thus, the target market under Phase III digitization is the remaining 25-26 million television homes that are currently on analog cable.\"

Financial Summary (Unaudited)

The Company achieved strong subscription and activation revenue growth of 26.0% year on year to INR 6.65 billion in the third quarter of the current fiscal year (fiscal year 2016) as compared to INR 5.28 billion in the third quarter of the 2015 fiscal year, primarily as a result of higher net subscribers and ARPU growth. Revenue from operations grew 21.6% year on year to INR 7.31 billion during the quarter. Subscriber acquisition costs in the form of hardware subsidies were INR 1,726 per subscriber during the third quarter of the 2016 fiscal year.

Videocon d2h achieved Adjusted EBITDA of INR 2.01 billion for the third quarter of the 2016 fiscal year compared to INR 1.41 billion for the third quarter of the 2015 fiscal year, an impressive growth of 42.2%. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 390 basis points year on year to 27.4% in the third quarter of the 2016 fiscal year.

Net loss for the third quarter of the 2016 fiscal year came in at INR 220 million, a 72.4% improvement over the third quarter of the 2015 fiscal year.

The Company added 0.67 million gross subscribers and 0.43 million net subscribers during the quarter. Gross subscribers totaled 14.95 million and net subscribers totaled 11.27 million as of December 31, 2015. Monthly churn came in at 0.73% for the quarter and 0.80% for the nine months ending December 31, 2015, which is marginally ahead of the company guidance.

The company had gross debt of INR 23.90 billion and total cash and short term investments of INR 8.26 billion as of December 31, 2015.

Conference call's dial in details

The results conference call time and details are provided below.

Forward looking statements
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In addition to statements which are forward-looking by reason of context, the words \"may\", \"will\", \"should\", \"expects\", \"plans\", \"intends\", \"anticipates\", \"believes\", \"estimates\", \"predicts\", \"potential\", or \"continue\" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. We caution you that reliance on any forward-looking statement involves risks and uncertainties that might cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These and other factors are more fully discussed in the Videocon d2h's registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the SEC and available at http://www.sec.gov. All information provided in this announcement is as of the date hereof, unless the context otherwise requires. Other than as required by law, Videocon d2h does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or other information in this announcement.

Detailed Q3FY16 financial results (unaudited) are available on the SEC web site and company web site www.ir.videocond2h.com

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SOURCE Videocon d2h Limited