Orange reports strong TV gains

Stéphane Richard

Orange reported 7.41 million IPTV and satellite TV customers for the three months ending March 31, up from 6.64 million a year earlier marking an impressive 11.6% increase.

Announcing its first quarter 2015 results, Orange said that 6.16 million of its IPTV and satellite subscribers were in France, up from 5.71 million a year earlier.

In Spain, Orange reported 129,000 TV customers, also up compared to 86,000 in Q1 2014.

In Poland its TV base stood at 756,000, up year-on-year from 708,000.

Overall, the mobile operator added 2.8 million customers to the group’s customer base during the quarter, with 10.9 million net additions year-on-year on a comparable basis. This was led by growth in mobile in Africa and the Middle East.

In France, Orange said that mobile contract additions of 164,000 in the quarter were nearly double the first quarter of 2014, driven by a record first quarter in retail contracts and “exceptional gross sales in the enterprise market.”

“Orange’s commercial performance in the first quarter of 2015 has been very strong across our entire geographic footprint. These numbers testify to the quality of our offers that are tailored to the needs of our customers, as well as the effectiveness of our strategy of differentiation through investment in very high-speed broadband networks,” said Orange Group CEO and chairman Stéphane Richard.

However, revenues and restated EBITDA were both down year on year, at €9.67 billion and €2.92 billion respectively.