Belgacom grows TV base to 1.2 million subs

Belgacom increased its TV subscriber base by 236,000 last year, ending December with a total of 1.2 million.

The Belgian telco lost some of the rights it held to broadcast Jupiler League football matches but CEO Didier Bellens said this was not longer affecting churn rates. “In 2011 we had to make some strategic choices, for which we maintained our discipline and opted not to take the easy road but to hold on to our end goal, value creation. As such we were vigilant not to overpay for Belgian football broadcasting rights. This now proves to have been the right choice since football-related churn is back to previous levels, when we had all the rights”

Revenue from TV services increased 14.3% year-on-year to €208 million.

Belgacom said its bundling strategy was paying off. Last year it added 219,000 multi-play subscribers, ending December with a total of 1.09 million ‘Packs’ customers.

The telco reported total revenues of €6.4 billion for 2011, down 3% year-on-year.