Telefónica targets football-starved Vodafone subs

Telefónica will use its grip on top-tier football in Spain to hammer away at Vodafone’s base, according to chief operating officer Ángel Vilá, while CEO José María Álvarez-Palletesaid that “video remains a key driver for value and improvement in loyalty” for the operator.

Speaking on the Spanish telco’s latest quarterly earnings call, Vilá said that Vodafone had managed to “retain a certain number of customers” last year because it still had the rights to air eight weekly La Liga matches. “From this August onwards, that will not be the case,” he said.

Vilá said that football fans that are customers of Vodafone will now “have to look elsewhere for football”, giving Telefónica an opportunity to target them with a new unified La Liga package alongside Champions League and Europa League football.

Vilá said that as a result of this hold on football, Telefónica may not need to employ as many promotional offers as last year to win subscribers.

Also speaking on the call, Álvarez-Pallete said that Telefónica was continuing to innovate in TV, with the launch of OTT TV service Movistar Play in Mexico and Argentina leading to a boost in its base of almost 60%, and the launch of Movistar+ Lite in Spain delivering “promising results”.

He said that “lifetime value of our customers” had improved thanks to lower churn of customers with TV versus non-TV broadband customers. Churn among TV customers was 30% lower, with “significantly higher ARPU”, he said.