Swisscom reaches 1.5 million TV customers

Swisscom grew its TV base by 3.7% year-on-year after adding 54,000 TV connections in the first six months of the year, reaching a record 1.5 million TV customers at the end of June.

The Swiss multi-play operator said that TV and broadband connections continue to grow, with strong demand for inOne bundled offerings continuing in the second quarter.

In the first half of the year roughly 550,000 customers opted for inOne, pushing the total to 1.89 million customers at the end of June – meaning that inOne covers 43% of all mobile subscriptions and 48% of fixed-line broadband connections.

The number of fixed-line broadband connections continued to grow by 39,000 year-on-year to around 2.03 million, which also benefited Swisscom TV, which remains the most popular digital TV service in Switzerland.

“Despite persistently strong competition driven by promotions and saturated markets, we once again made gains with our bundled offerings,” said Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi.

“I am particularly pleased that 1.5 million customers are using Swisscom TV, more than ever before. Fastweb in Italy also continues to enjoy growth.

“The situation with conventional fixed-line telephony remains a challenge, as structural factors are leading to a continued decline in the number of connections. Our initiatives to reduce costs are taking hold. We are on track for full-year 2018.”

Swisscom’s financial performance for the first half of 2018 was in line with expectations. Net revenue increased by 2.0% to CHF 5.805 billion (€5.1bn). Operating income before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) declined by 5.2% to CHF 2.143 billion and net profit by 6.2% to CHF 787 million.