Swisscom TV growth grinds to a virtual halt

Swisscom saw its TV base edge up by 3.5% to 1.47 million in the year to March, helped by the success of bundled offering inOne, in the face of what the operator described as “stiff competition from cable networks”. However, the company’s overall TV subscriber base was more or less flat quarter-on-quarter.

Swisscom added net 49,000 TV customers last year. The company launched a new operating system and user interface last November.

The small increase in TV subscribers year-on-year represents a lower gain than the 76,000 additions recorded in the year to the end of September, when Swisscom had already admitted it was facing “a noticeable trend towards market saturation”. However, the net gain in subscribers between September and the end of year was only about 2,000.

On a more positive note, Swisscom said that its bundled inOne offerings had attracted 1.3 million customers by the end of last year, with the number of customers using a bundled offering up 235,000, or 14.1%, to 1.91 million by the end of the fourth quarter.

Revenue from bundled contracts rose by CHF335 million (€257 million) year-on-year to CHF2.837 billion.

Swisscom posted overall revenues of CHF11.662 billion for the year, up 0.2%. Core business revenue dipped by 2.1% to CHF9.058 billion due to falling fixed-line phone and roaming revenues.

EBITDA was flat at CHF4.295 billion. While net income was down 2.2% to CHF1.568 billion.

“Despite fierce competition, we managed to assert ourselves well on the market and we achieved the targets set. The inOne bundled offerings were a particular hit with our customers; we’ve never had such a successful product,” said CEO Urs Schaeppi.