Vodafone grows TV base, trials continue in UK

Vodafone grew its TV customer base by 0.2 million in the first half of the financial year to 9.8 million, as trials continue for its new UK TV offering.

Announcing its results for the six months ended September 30, 2016, Vodafone said that it has 7.8 million TV customers in Germany and has seen “encouraging initial uptake” for its new August-launched GigaKombi converged bundle.

In Spain, Vodafone One, its integrated cable, mobile and TV service, reached 2.0 million customers at the period end, up from 0.8 million a year ago.

“Our TV customer base continued to grow strongly, supported by the launch of our new DSL TV proposition in March 2016, and in total we now have 1.2 million TV customers,” said Vodafone, commenting on its Spanish footprint.

In the UK, Vodafone said that “field trials continue for Vodafone TV”. Vodafone first talked about plans for a UK TV service in 2014, but delays have put back the expected full-scale commercial launch to late 2016.

“As Europe’s fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged Enterprise business continues to outperform its peers,” said Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao commenting on the company’s results.

“We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency.”

Overall Vodafone reported organic first half EBITDA growth of 4.3% to €7.9 billion, with Europe modestly ahead of its expectations – led by Germany and Italy.

First half group organic service revenue was up 2.3%, but overall group revenue for the period was down 3.9% to €27.1 billion.

Looking ahead, Vodafone listed “failure to deliver on convergence” as one of 10 possible ‘risk factors’ for the business – noting competition from other providers that have the ability to sell combinations of fixed line, broadband, TV content and mobile services.

“If we fail to deliver converged services in key markets, due to inability to access infrastructure or content at a reasonable price, this could potentially lead to higher customer churn and/or significant downward pressure on our prices,” said Vodafone.