German pay-TV broadcaster Sky Deutschland faced declining customer additions, lower ARPU and increased loss in Q4 2014/15.

The number of customers rose in the three months between April 1 and June 30, 2015 by just 55.000. In the same period last year, Sky Deutschland reported 82.000 new additions – a decline by 33%. The total subscriber number now amounts to 4.28 million (June 30, 2014: 3.81 million).

On the positive side, Sky Deutschland managed to lower its churn rate from 10.1% to 8.3% in the past 12 months. The average revenue per user (ARPU), however, dropped from €34.59 to €33.19 per month – a decrease by 4%.

Turnover climbed by 8.3% from €427.5 million in Q4 2013/14 to €463.1 million in Q4 2014/15. The EBITDA, however, decreased massively by 85.9% from €45.3 million to just €6.4 million, mainly due to higher costs for programming, hardware, customer service and technology.

The net loss considerably widened from €2.5 million to €28.6 million, pushing Sky Deutschland further away from the prospect of reaching black figures. The subscription broadcaster still doesn’t give an indication as to when it expects to post a net profit.

On a year-to-year basis (June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2015), the figures look brighter: Sky Deutschland increased its subscriber number by 467.000 while turnover rose by €145.1 million to €1.8 billion. The EBITDA climbed by €57.4 million to €86.2 million. The net loss decreased from €150.5 million to €77.4 million.

The forthcoming quarter results will show whether Sky Deutschland manages to halt the downside trend in Q4.