Telia sees uplift in TV subs but media revenues decline

Source: Telia

Nordic telco Telia saw an uplift in paid streaming video subscribers in the year to March, but TV and media revenues for the same period saw a dip.

Telia had 832,000 SVOD subscribers at the end of March, up 8.7% year on year. The company added 30,000 SVOD customers in the first quarter across both Sweden and Finland.

Media revenues were down 2.3% to SEK1.9 billion, while adjusted EBITDA jumped 44.5% to negative SEK202 million.

The company said the dip in media revenues was down to the depressed advertising market in Sweden in particular, with ad revenues down 6.3%.

This was partly offset by growth of 5.2% in subscription and other revenue.

The improvement in earnings was down to reduced content costs more than compensating the decline in service revenue.

“TV and Media saw a decline in advertising revenue of 6.3% due to weak market conditions, however the decline was lower than in previous quarters and the majority of it was offset by 5.2% growth in pay TV revenue. We are pleased with the progress in our digital transformation, with growth both in streaming consumption, the streaming customer base, and in our digital advertising revenue,” said president and CEO Patrik Hofbauer.

Telia overall saw revenues dip by 2% to SEK21.3 billion, while adjusted EBITDA rose by 3.4% to SEK7.1 billion.

“Operational momentum continued in the first quarter, with growth in all telco businesses and progress in the TV and Media turnaround. NPS and service revenue trends in the consumer segment have been encouraging. Immediately after the end of the quarter the sale of Telia Denmark closed as expected, which strengthens our balance sheet,” said Hofbauer.