Belgacom sees TV growth accelerate in fourth quarter

Growth in Belgacom’s TV subscriber base accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2013, with an additional 20,000 TV households taking the company’s TV base to 1.479 million, up 6.7% year-on-year.

Of these, 260,000 homes took multiple streams, with a further 11,000 multiple set-top boxes being added in the fourth quarter.

TV revenue in the fourth quarter grew by 11.3% year-on-year to reach €69 million. TV ARPU grew 4.3% to €19.

Full-year TV revenue was €267 million, up 13.3% on the previous year.

Belgacom’s multi-play base at the end of the year was 1.314 million, 18,000 up quarter-on-quarter.

“We closed what was undoubtedly a challenging and eventful year. A year in which Belgacom proved how valuable its consistent convergence strategy is, and how this strength makes it more resilient than some of its peers. This was evident in the last quarter of 2013 too, as our combined fixed-mobile offers, along with a successful year-end campaign, drove a solid operational performance, with strong subscriber growth for TV, internet and mobile,” said CEO Dominique Leroy.

Overall, Belgacom posted fourth quarter revenues of €1.582 billion, down 3.8%, and EBITDA of €413 million, down 3.7%.