Telefónica pay-TV flat growth
July 25, 2019
Telefónica’s pay-TV subscriber numbers were flat in the year to June, with marginal growth of just 0.4 per cent to reach 8.8 million.
This was despite solid growth in IPTV (16 per cent) and from its OTT TV offering in Latin America where Movistar Play grew by 59 per cent to reach 1.2 million subscribers.
Overall pay-TV numbers fell in the first two quarters of the year after recording growth last year. Video revenues for the second quarter were €756 million, up 6.1 per cent.
In Spain, pay-TV numbers grew by 4 per cent year-on-year to 4.106 million, with 11,000 additions in the quarter, despite the end of the football season. Convergent customers now account for 92 per cent of pay-TV subscribers in Spain. Telefónica saw strong IPTV growth in Germany from its small base, with 31,000 net adds representing growth of 33 per cent. However, pay-TV numbers in Brazil fell by 9.5 per cent to 1.46 million. Pay-TV numbers is southern Spanish-speaking America fell by 13 per cent to 594,000 despite a 44 per cent increase in IPTV numbers as a result of a decline in satellite TV customers.