Telia top line boosted by TV and media

Telia’s TV and media business, alongside service revenue in Sweden and the Baltic states helped boost the company’s fourth quarter performance, with overall service revenue rising by 3%.

CEO Alison Kirkby said that TV and media had continued to grow in the quarter, with access to C More pay TV content now 14% higher than a year ago.

Service revenues grew by 11% across both ad-funded and pay TV businesses, with ad revenues described as strong in both linear and digital platforms across Sweden and Finland.

Digital advertising in Sweden was up by 28%, driven by streaming service TV4 Play.

While service revenue grew, investment in premium sports rights meant that growth in the C More pay TV customer base failed to translate into EBITDA growth for the TV and media business overall.

TV ARPU grew by 8% in the quarter however.

The TV and media business, comprising the former Bonnier Broadcasting free and pay TV businesses, had 865,000 subscribers at the end of Q4, up from 789,000 a year earlier.

Overall TV subscription for the group, including each country’s fixed-line TV numbers, amounted to 3.377 million, up from 3.235 million.

Full year TV and media unit service revenues were SEK8.647 billion (€820 million), up from SEK7.429 billion.

TV and media EBITDA was SEK878 million, up from SEK758 million.