Telefónica TV boosted by success of converged bundles

Telefónica saw its pay TV base rise in the second quarter for the first time in a year, with the success of convergent offerings driving the reversal of fortune.

The company added 56,000 pay TV homes in the three months to June, although this was not quite enough to offset a year-on-year decline in the TV base of 1.7%. The overall decline was driven by a decline in Telefónica’s satellite TV customer base, down 8.4% year-on-year to 4.1 million.

In Spain, the penetration of the group’s Movistar Fusión converged offering reached 84% in TV and 77% in contract mobile customers.

Pay TV customers in Spain grew by 51,000 in the quarter, reversing the 41,000 decline in the previous three months, driven by new customers and migration of low-value customers to the Fusión+ Ocio bundle launched in April, which had 151,000 customers by the end of June.

Telefónica has now launched a new entry-level convergence offering including TV to drive penetration further.

Service revenues in Spain improved quarter-on-quarter, ending on €3.16 billion, down 1.9% year-on-year. However, other revenues declined by 5.1% year-on-year to €554 million because of less wholesale TV revenues, down €30 million in the quarter.

In Brazil, Telefónica’s TV base declined by 6.5% year-on-year to reach1.647 million despite a 65% uplift in IPTV numbers. In Spanish-speaking America, the pay TV base grew by 1.9% to 2.961 million.