Telekom Austria sees TV progress

Telekom Austria grew its domestic and international TV base in the fourth quarter and full 2016 financial year, with demand for higher bandwidth and TV products contributing to a stabilisation of its ARPU in its domestic Austrian market.

The operator grew its Austrian TV subscriber base to 284,000, up from 278,700 at the end of the previous quarter and up from 269,400 at the end of last year.

Austrian TV RGUs grew by 5.5% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, outperforming fixed-line RGU growth of 1.1%.

In Bulgaria, where Telekom Austria owns cable operator Blizoo among other assets, it had 478,200 TV customers, up marginally year-on-year. The Croatian TV base, via local subsidiary Vipnet, is also growing slowly, with 202,400 customers recorded at the end of the year, while in neighbouring Slovenia, Telekom Austria had 50,500 TV customers, up from 37,600 at the end of the previous year. In Macedonia, Telekom Austria’s local subsidiary had 124,100 TV customers at the end of the year.

Telekom Austria expanded its IPTV universe with the acquisition of Altant Telekom in Belarus. The operator has both IPTV and cable subscribers and offers on-demand movies and music as part of its range of services.

Despite the TV success, the fourth quarter was mixed for the operator, with overall revenues falling slightly and EBITDA falling significantly – buy 17.7% – in the fourth quarter. The operator posted full year revenues of €4.21 billion and EBITDA of €1.35 billion.