Telenor Group says it is aiming for significant savings across all functional cost areas between now and 2020. At its half-year results the Norwegian telco giant said it was looking for 27 per cent reduction in head office support functions starting next year and reaching their full effect in 2019.

Additionally, a 20 per cent reduction in marketing and communication costs by 2020 and helped by more efficient use of the marketing budget, a 14 per cent cut in operation & maintenance expenses, and a 26 per cent savings in energy costs and consultancy and temporary workers.

While Telenor does not break down how these target savings will affect its ‘Broadcast’ division, it reported that its Canal Digital DTH subscriber numbers are down 2 per cent (from 855,000 DTH subscribers in Q1 to 851,000 at June 30th), and this is a fall of some 30,000 since Q2/2016. However, ARPU is up 3 per cent from NOK 397/month (€43.39) last year to NOK 405/month in Q2.  Operating profit at Canal Digital DTH rose in the year from NOK 202 million (Q2/2016) to NOK 206 million as at June 30th.

Telenor Satellite Broadcasting’s revenues were steady at NOK 227 million, although down y-o-y from Q2/2016 (NOK 241 million). However, a one-time financial lease contract for transponder capacity has given Telenor Satellite a strong benefit of NOK 360 million during Q2 and taking the operator’s Operational Profit of NOK 424 million.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, DTH/Satellite, Results, Telco