p36-42,44,46,48 Euro 50 Muss-Wald NovDec08v5 7/11/08 13:39 Page 44
Euro 50 > Leaders in broadband and pay-TV Digital TV Europe
November/December 2008
Parm Sandhu CEO, Unitymedia
Under Parm Sandhu’s leadership, Unitymedia, has helped to trans-
formed the structure of the German cable industry and introduced
broader competition to the broadband internet, telephony and pay-TV
markets. He has led the development of Unitymedia, combining the for-
mer Ish, Iesy and TC West businesses to create one of Germany’s
strongest triple-play brands, bringing competition in internet and teleph-
ony to the market and delivering strong quarter-by-quarter growth in
RGUs, revenue and profit. Earlier this year Sandhu said that the compa-
ny’s strategy of upgrading its network provided long-term viable infra-
structure competition to Deutsche Telekom. It has targeted 80% of its
network to be upgraded by the end of the year. This year the company
surpassed one million digital TV subscribers. Sandhu is also a board
member of the German cable association ANGA Cable with responsibili-
ty for international relations and affairs.
Age 40
Education BA Honours in mathematics, University of Cambridge.
Years in industry Five years.
Job description Creating value for and balancing the interests of all
stakeholders especially customers, investors, employees and regulators.
Last year’s highlights Accelerated adoption of Unity3Play and sur-
passing one million digital TV customers following various rebranding
exercises; revenues and EBITDA continuing to grow at double-digit per-
centage rates. more price stability in line with trends in other European markets.
Reflections on the downturn I expect the growth of Unity3Play to Personal aims for the year ahead To extend Unitymedia’s lead as a
continue as households seek to make savings. As for the industry as a triple-play provider in its regions. Continuing to develop a corporate cul-
whole the economic downturn will force cable to become even more ture that is customer-focused and supports the brand promise in all
competitive, focussing on organic growth as opposed to mergers and respects.
acquisitions.
Life outside work Spending time with my wife and three daughters;
Positive thoughts for 2009 The German broadband market will show trying to keep fit.
Duco Sickinghe CEO, Telenet
Duco Sickinghe’s Telenet cable platform acquired the analogue and digi-
tal subscriber base from Interkabel, a consortium of regional Belgian
operators this year. In the process, it gained 762,500 TV subscribers,
giving it a total of 2.7 million. Earlier in the year, the company reached
the 500,000 digital TV subscriber mark and notched up 10 million
video-on-demand requests during the first six months of the year.
Sickhinghe also told delegates at this year’s CTAM Europe cable market-
ing summit that the company would create a stronger mobile play that
would allow it to develop new converged products. He said he believed
Telenet could generate revenues of €250m-300m from mobile within
the next five years.
Visit us at www.digitaltveurope.net
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