VIVENDI SA ADR (VIVHY) Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
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VIVENDI SA/ADR (NASDAQOTH: VIVHY)
Q3 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Nov. 15, 2018, 12:00 p.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks

  • Questions and Answers

  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, and thank you for joining Vivendi's Third Quarter 2018 Revenues Conference Call. This call is webcast on vivendi.com. Today's call is hosted by Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Herve Philippe, a member of the Management Board and the Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, this program is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Arnaud de Puyfontaine. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Arnaud de Puyfontaine -- Chief Executive Officer

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for your pronunciation. Thank you for joining us today and I would like to start by briefly reviewing some key achievements of Q3. I will then hand over to Herve Philippe to comment on our financial results.

I'm happy to say that Vivendi delivered a strong performance for the third quarter and over the first nine months of 2018. On the like-for-like basis, Vivendi's revenues increased by 5.6% compared to the third quarter of 2017 and by 4.6% compared to the first nine months of 2017, these good results were fueled by our three main businesses.

In Music, Universal Music Group maintained strong momentum, thanks to increased subscription and streaming revenues. Last week, UMG announced an agreement with Boomplay, the most popular music streaming service in Africa. Universal is the first major to license its content to this service.

At the same time, UMG artists keep topping the charts. For the last week of September, UMG had nine out of 10 top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in the US. This is the first time in nearly five years that the Music Group has achieved this performance since 2013, when it was achieved by UMG.

On the TV side, we have had lot of very positive news over the last few weeks. Canal+ Group won the exclusive rights to broadcast the English Premier League for the 2019-2020 free period in France and Poland. It also announced the renewal of its agreement with French cinema authorities. The movie Sink or Swim or Le Grand Bain in French and the series Le Bureau des Legendes are performing very well and are highly acclaimed by critics.

While recovering steadily in France, Canal+ Group has pursued its dynamic international growth with an outstanding increase in the individual subscriber base of plus 726,000 year-on-year.