Vodafone sees converged base grow

Vodafone saw its base of converged customers rise significantly despite little if any growth in TV in Germany and Spain in its fiscal first half. The telco added 310,000 converged customers in the six months to September, taking its converged total to 4.1 million, or 4.9 million including its VodafoneZiggo joint venture with Liberty Global.

Vodafone had 9.8 million TV customers overall at the end of September, or 13.7 million including VodafoneZiggo.

In Germany, the company’s TV base lost 34,000 customers over the first half, standing at 7.7 million, but it added 110,000 converged customers year-on-year through marketing its GigaKombi offers, taking its converted base to 0.5 million.

In Spain, Vodafone admitted that its TV growth was hit by a delay in its fiscal first quarter in offering TV to new homes in its wholesale footprint and a greater focus on premium packages. The operator added 23,000 TV homes in the first half, with Q2 gains offsetting Q1 losses, compared with 57,000 broadband adds and 94,000 contract mobile adds. However, its converged offering, Vodafone One, combining fixed, mobile and TV, reached 2.5 million in September, up 459,000 year-on-year.

In Italy, where TV was added to its product line-up more recently, Vodafone added 15,000 TV customers in the course of the first half to reach 17,000. The telco had 583,000 converged consumer homes at the end of September, having added 112,000 broadband homes in the first half.

In Portugal, Vodafone added 34,000 TV customers in the first half, taking its total to 527,000.

Vodafone said that its fixed-line business now accounted for a quarter of group service revenues, up from a fifth three years ago.

Vodafone’s first-half performance overall was generally better received than has been the case of late, with the company raising its full year adjusted ETIBTDA guidance. The company’s revenues were down 4.1% to €23.1 billion, due to the deconsolidation of the Dutch unit and foreign currency effects, but organic service revenue was up and organic adjusted EBITDA grew by 13% to €7.4 billion.