Tele2 sees zero net growth in TV as DTT losses offset fibre and cable growth

Swedish telco Tele2’s TV services delivered zero net growth in revenue for the first quarter, with a decline in the company’s digital-terrestrial offering offsetting growth in cable and fibre-based IPTV.

Kjell Johnsen

Digital TV delivered SEK699 million in revenue overall, with cable and fibre growing 2% to SEK429 million and DTT declining by 4% to SEK240 million.

Revenue-generating units for both platforms in Sweden declined slightly. Cable and fibre TV subs were down by 1.000 to 631,000, a smaller decline than the prior year’s 2,000 losses.

DTT in Sweden dropped by 8,000 to 150,000, on a par with the subscriber losses for the same period last year. However average revenue per sub was up, with cable and fibre ASPU up 4% to SEK252 and DTT ASPU up 9% to SEK318.

Tele2 said that the rollout of new Viaplay-infused packages and associated price increases managed to offset the decline in the legacy DTT business.

Tele2’s overall revenue for the quarter was just over SEK7 billion, up 3%, with mobile and fixed broadband contributing but prepaid mobile and fixed telephony dropping.

President and CEO Kjell Johnsen highlighted progress on the 5G front and said that the company planned to “bring all our main brands together on the same platform by the end of the year”, a move he said was “fundamentally important to our next step FMC [fixed mobile convergence] ambitions that will define much of our value agenda going forward”.