KPN loses TV customers following integration of low-cost brands

KPN lost 14,000 TV customers in a rough fourth quarter for the Dutch telco, including 5,000 IPTV customers.

KPN, which has over the past few years seen its IPTV numbers rise as its historic digital-terrestrial base declines, has been hit over the last couple of quarters by the integration of the Telfort brand and discontinuation of customers at the lower end of the market as well as by increased competition.

KPN had 2.17 million IPTV customers at the end of the year, while subscribers to the Digitenne DTT business numbered 156,000.

The same issues had a negative impact on KPN’s overall converged household numbers, which declined by 2,000 over the quarter to 1.402 million.

While fixed-line revenues declined slightly, fixed-line ARPU increased by 5.2% y-on-y to € 48 in Q4, mainly driven by price adjustments from June, higher inflow ARPU following the integration of Telfort and a declining customer base for legacy PSTN and Digitenne services.

Broadband revenue-generating units numbered 2.848 million, down from 2.871 million the previous quarter. Fixed voice customers also declined from 2.068 million to 2.015 million.

Total fixed RGUs numbered 7.189 million at the end of the quarter, down from 7.279 million.

KPN also lost mobile customers, with both its post-paid and pre-paid totals declining quarter-on-quarter, which the company said was due to “ongoing dynamics in the no-frills market”.

KPN CEO Joost Farwerck said that the telco is “active in a highly competitive environment within an evolving landscape, which is reflected in lower net adds in Consumer and some pressure in mobile”, but pointed to the company’s strength in wholesale.

He said that KPN overall remained “on track with the execution of our strategy”despite the fact that “intra-year phasing of opex and divestments negatively impacted our performance in the fourth quarter”.