Swisscom sees strong TV 2.0 growth, declines to make provision for fine

Swisscom had signed up 564,000 customers to its TV 2.0 service by the end of June, up 258,000 in the first half of the year.

The company had a total of 1.238 million TV customers at the end of the second quarter, up 13.5% year-on-year, and up 73,000 in the first half of this year. Fixed fee subscriptions accounted for 1.09 million of these.

The majority of TV 2.0 subscribers upgraded from a previous Swisscom offering. Swisscom said that the growth in TV and broadband connections more than offset the company’s decline in fixed line customers.

Broadcast subscribers numbered 1.922 million, up 3.6%, while fixed-line customers fell by 4.7% to 2.697 million.

Swisscom declined to include a provision in its second quarter financials in relation to the CHF143 million (€132 million) fine demanded by the country’s competition watchdog over its alleged abuse of its dominant market position by marketing sports content exclusively to its subscribers. The competition commission last month said that Swisscom and Teleclub occupied a dominant position in the supply of football and ice hockey and should make its offering available to all TV platforms at non-discriminatory terms.

Swisscom said it acted legally and that it does not believe a court of final appeal will levy sanctions.

Swisscom posted overall revenues of CHF5.758 billion for the first half, up 1% and EBITDA of CHF2.133 billion, down 2.2%.

“Despite price cuts for roaming services, currency effects and strong competition, we enjoyed a solid and pleasing result in the first half of the year,” said CEO Urs Schaeppi.

“On a like-for-like basis, we increased revenue and operating income (EBITDA). We are investing heavily in our network and new offerings, and have gained a large number of new customers, particularly with Swisscom TV and bundled contracts. [Swisscom’s Italian subsidiary] Fastweb has been performing very well in the Italian market and increased its customer base by more than 8%.”