Com Hem hit by competition, but grows number of homes

Swedish cable operator Com Hem saw a slight decrease in overall revenue in the third quarter, while posting an increase in homes connected.

The cable operator grew its connected homes base by 41,000 in the quarter, ending September owth 1.789 million homes.

Com Hem had 603,000 digital TV subscribers at the end of September, down slightly on the second quarter, while broadband subscribers grew slightly to 550,700. Triple-play customers fell quarter-on-quarter to 240,900, down from 246,800 in June.

Total overall revenue fell year-on-year from SEK1.133 billion (€127 million) to SEK1.104 billion in the third quarter. Revenue from digital TV and telephony service fell, while revenue from broadband grew. EBITDA als fell slightly to SEK569 million, compared with SEK582 million in 2012.

Com Hem’s capex grew significantly year-on-year to SEK267 million, compared with SEK167 million for the same quarter in 2012, thanks to its investment in the TiVo advanced TV platform.

I am happy to see increased revenue from our high-speed broadband services and the growing number of homes connected as well as the growing number of individual subscribers in the last quarter compared with the second quarter of 2013,” said outgoing CEO Tomas Franzén. “Customer demand for higher speeds continues to grow. However, the market environment for digital-television and fixed-telephony continues to be competitive. I am convinced that our new digital-television products, TiVo and TiVoToGo, launched in October, will help us increase our digital-television revenue over time. We are currently in a phase of

large investments in both our services and network in order to strengthen our position in the market.”