Com Hem: third of TV base now has TiVo

Anders Nilsson

Swedish operator Com Hem said that 34% of its TV customer base now takes TiVo, after adding 10,000 customers in Q3 to take the total to 213,000.

In the company’s third quarter results announcement, Com Hem CEO Anders Nilsson described the TiVo milestone as a “remarkable achievement since our launch two years ago.”

Com Hem also reported strong uptake for its new TV Everywhere service, Com Hem Play, which it launched to its TiVo customers in September to replace the earlier TiVoToGo service.

“It offers significantly improved interface and navigation than the previous version. Reach of Com Hem Play rose 58% compared to TiVoToGo, while total streaming volume up by over 200% compared with the month preceding launch,” said Nilsson.

Overall the company reported “stable growth” in its digital TV segment in Q3, with customer numbers growing by 4,000 revenue-generating units quarter-over-quarter to reach 631,000.

“It has been a solid quarter as we continue to execute on our plan. We are delivering customer growth and significantly improved operating free cash flow. Operationally, the company achieved three major landmarks: our consumer subscriber base rose above 900,000 unique subscribers, churn fell below 13% and over a third of our digital TV base now has TiVo,” said Nilsson.

For the quarter, Com Hem reported revenue of SEK 1.255 billion, up 3.7% year-on-year. Net profit for the period was SEK51 million, compared to SEK7 million a year earlier, which Com Hem said was mainly attributable to improved EBITDA and net financial expense. However, operating profit was down 4% year-on-year to SEK192 million.

Com Hem first launched its TiVo service in October 2013.