Telefónica sees solid TV growth as FX and debt take toll

Telefónica saw solid growth in pay TV customers in the second quarter, with the total number of TV subscribers now equivalent to almost half of fixed broadband lines.

Telefónica had 8.422 million pay TV customers at the end of June, up 4.9% year-on-year and up from 8.365 million in March. Overall, pay TV customers now represent 49% of total fixed broadband customers. The total pay TV figure includes about 4.5 million satellite customers.

Pay TV customers in Spain numbered 3.755 million, up 4.4%, with a smaller rise in the number of fixed broadband customers and a decline in mobile customers.  Movistar Fusión converged customers represent 77% of TV customers. Satellite customers accounted for 750,000 of the TV total.

In Latin America, pay TV numbers were up by 10%. In Brazil, TV customers grew by 19% to 1.8 million.

The growth in TV came as Telefónica posted a net profit of €1.24 billion, down 42.1%, on revenues of €25.235 billion, down 7.1%, for the first half. The sharp decline in profitability, largely as a result of the weakness of the Brazilian, Argentinian and UK currencies, compounded by concerns about the company’s debt, led to a sharp fall in Telefónica’s shares.