Voda up but big losses in TV subs
July 24, 2023
Vodafone TV Germany dropped 120,000 subs it reveals in Q1 results. Vodafone said that its consumer converged customer base in Germany remained broadly stable at 2.3 million. TV subs now stand at 12.64 million, down from 12.76 million last quarter.
Vodafone stands to lose even more TV subs as rules that prevent housing associations from bundling TV with rental costs come into force though CEO Margherita Della Valle believes the company has an opportunity to up its share of broadband in the multiple-dwelling market as the new rules come into force.
Speaking to analysts, Della Valle said that the €800 million in revenue likely to be lost from the change in TV law had a high margin of 80 per cent to 90 per cent. However, she said that there was no immediate connection between losing a TV customer and losing a broadband customers.
Della Valle said that the company was focused on pricing rather than subscriber numbers, particularly in view of the inflationary pressures the company is under. Addressing German broadband, she admitted the numbers had been hit by a €5 price hike. This price change had now been notified to 50 per cent of the customer base, with more to follow. However, she said the churn impact had been relatively low.
In Spain, Vodafone’s other main TV market, service revenue declined by 3 per cent due to a lower customer base and continued price competition in the Consumer value segment, partially offset by price increases. The sequential improvement in trends reflects a full quarter benefit from price increases implemented in Q4. The Spanish broadband base declined by 65,000, and its mobile contract base fell by 87,000. The TV base in Spain fell by 33,000 to 1.426 million. Della Valle said “structural change” was very much necessary in Spain in the context of market conditions. She said the company was “considering a range of options” but it was too early to comment on these.
Over all, as the company looks forward to the UK merger with Three, revenues fell by 4.2 per cent, but grew by 3.7 per cent organically, to €9.11 billion, with Germany accounting for €2.819 billion. Vodafone announced that it had hired former SAP CFO Luka Mucic to take on the finance role.