German pay-TV operator Premiere lost more than 44,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2006, the company announced. Premiere’s subscriber base stood at 3.5 million on March 31. Revenues in the 2006 first quarter this year reached 273.3 million euros ($451.7 million), an increase of more than 10 percent compared to the first quarter last year.

The operator remains set for a busy year. Along with launching high-definition TV services earlier this year, Premiere must still resolve the issue as to whether it will be able to screen live German league soccer (Bundesliga) beginning with the 2006-2007 season. Premiere lost the rights in late 2005 to screen top domestic soccer between 2006 and 2009 to the Arena consortium, a collection of German cable operators. A number of industry analysts forecasted that Premiere would lose subscribers based on the loss of the soccer contract.