Tele2 Q1 sees TV decline as Johnsen hails Iliad move

A decline in TV revenue along with declines in fixed phone and prepaid mobile helped mute a modest uplift in the top line for Swedish service provider Tele2 in the first quarter.

Kjell Johnsen

Digital TV revenue was down 2% to SEK656 million in the quarter. The drop was attributable to digital-terrestrial TV, down 5% to SEK229 million, with cable and fibre TV revenues remaining more or less flat at SEK427 million.

Prepaid mobile sales were down 7% to SEK221 million, while fixed phone revenues fell by 19% to SEK37 million.

Overall, Tele2 saw end user service revenue climb by 4% to SEK3.135 billion. Tele2 overall revenues were up 2% to SEK7.152 billion.

Tele2 had 832,000 digital TV subs as of the end of Q1, down 55 year and year and down 26,000 for the quarter.

Cable and fibre subs numbered 615,000, down 3% year on year and down 17,000 for the quarter. DTT subs were down 12% on the year to 217,000, down 8,000 on the quarter.

Average service revenue per TV user increased however, by 1% in the case of cable and fibre subs to SEK288, while DTT revenue per sub was up 9% to SEK345.

Reflecting on the year so far, CEO Kjell Johnsen said: “I am pleased to say that we are off to a good start in 2024. Having built momentum in our Swedish business in 2023, we now see continued growth while maintaining high pace in our 5G roll-out and digital transformation efforts. Performance in the Baltics is also good, primarily led by a strong performance in Lithuania. The Tele2 model of unique capital efficiency continues to provide strong cash flows and low leverage even while executing significant upgrades of our technical capabilities.”

Referring to the acquisition of Kinnevik’s stake in Tele2 by Xavier Niel’s Iliad Group and investment vehicle NJJ, Johnsen said the move would bring “clarity around the long-term ownership structure of Tele2”.