TV growth fails to arrest Telekom Austria revenue decline

A relatively strong showing in TV and fixed broadband across its international markets failed to prevent declines in both top line and EBITDA numbers for Telekom Austria last year.

Telekom Austria had 235,700 domestic TV subscribers at the end of 2013, up 7.7% year-on-year. In Bulgaria it had 77,800 TV customers, up 22.9% year-on-year.

In Austria, where the group experienced a 7.6% decline in revenue, the company said that “higher broadband and TV revenues could only partly offset the continued decline of the fixed-line voice business”.

Croatian subsidiary Vipnet had 157,100 TV customers at the end of the year, up 28.4% year-on-year. The group said that the strength of its TV and fixed line offering in Croatia had mitigated the impact of mobile price pressure and regulatory decisions. However Vipnet experienced no growth in TV subscribers in the final quarter, losing about 1,000 net customers.

The consolidation of Digi TV customers in March 2013 which reported lower average revenue per customer than Vipnet’s traditional fixed-line customers resulted in a decline of average revenue per fixed-line (ARPL) in a year-on-year comparison.

Telekom Austria as a whole posted revenues of €4.8 billion, down 3.4%, and EBITDA of €1.29 billion, down 11.6%.