Swisscom reported growth in the number of customers opting for bundled services in the first half of this year, highlighting in particular an increase in its TV customer base.
The Swiss incumbent on Wednesday posted a 1% year-on-year increase in group revenue in the first six months of 2015 to 5.76 billion francs (€5.4 billion), and said that growth would have been 1.8% if adjusted for acquisitions, disposals and exchange rate fluctuations.
Similarly, EBITDA slipped 2.2% to CHF2.13 billion, but grew by 1.9% on a like-for-like basis, while net income fell by 2.7% to CHF784 million.
"We are investing heavily in our network and new offerings, and have gained a large number of new customers, particularly with Swisscom TV and bundled contracts," said Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi, in a statement.
1.31 million customers were signed up to bundled packages as of the end of June, up by 197,000 or 17.7% on mid-2014. Revenue from bundled contracts grew by 18.5% to CHF1.08 billion.
Swisscom increased its TV customer base by 13.5% to 1.2 million, including 73,000 net adds in the first half of this year. Fixed broadband connections grew by 3.6% to 1.92 million and overall revenue-generating units increased by 192,000 over 12 months to 12.4 million.
"Fastweb has been performing very well in the Italian market and increased its customer base by more than 8%," Schaeppi added.
Swisscom’s Italian unit grew revenue by 6.9% in 1H to €862 million as a result of that customer growth and ended June with 2.16 million broadband customers. However, fierce competition meant average revenue per broadband customer fell by 4%.
Due to a higher euro exchange rate, Swisscom raised its outlook for the full year. It expects to generate revenue in excess of CHF11.5 billion in 2015 and EBITDA upwards of CHF4.2 billion.
