Over and out for ArenaSAT

Unitymedia, the German cable operator owned by Liberty Global, is to shut down its DTH satellite platform ArenaSAT. The service is scheduled to end on September 30.
Unitymedia first launched the DTH platform in 2006 after acquiring the German Bundesliga…

Unitymedia, the German cable operator owned by Liberty Global, is to shut down its DTH satellite platform ArenaSAT. The service is scheduled to end on September 30.

Unitymedia first launched the DTH platform in 2006 after acquiring the German Bundesliga football rights the year before. After failing to sign up the number of subscribers stipulated by the rights agreement, it entered into a distribution agreement with fellow German DTH platform Premiere, which has since become Sky Deutschland. As the deal failed to win regulatory anti-trust clearance, Arena eventually sub-licensed the football rights to Premiere under a new agreement, which was also unable to bear fruit for Arena subscriber figures. At the end of March, the DTH platform had just 51,000 subscribers, down from 184,000 the previous year.

Unitymedia has said that it wants to focus on its core business of providing triple-play services to cable subscribers.