Deutsche Telekom grows TV base 5.1% year-on-year

Deutsche Telekom grew its total IPTV, satellite and cable TV customer base 5.1% year-on-year to 3.96 million in the second quarter.

The operator said that the majority of its 193,000 net TV additions, compared to Q2 2015, were customers in Greece, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.

Germany, meanwhile, remained the biggest single TV market for the company with 2.77 million IPTV and satellite customers in the quarter, up 7.7% year-on-year.

In the first half of 2016 alone, the company said it added 94,000 TV customers.

“Our TV and entertainment offerings have evolved into an important pillar of the consumer business, which is why we continuously invest in improving our entertainment services,” said Deutsche Telekom in its half-year interim group report.

“This entails, on the one hand, a portfolio with an impressive selection of film, sports, and TV content. However, we are also working hard on providing services that our customers can use in high quality – anywhere and on all devices.”

Discussing new products and services, Deutsche Telekom said that 100,000 OTE TV customers were able to use its new hybrid platform by June, after it started to migrate customers in April.

The new service allows satellite TV subscribers to connect their decoder to the web, giving them access to interactive services like replay functions and on-demand content.

In May, Deutsche Telekom also launched its new Entertain TV service in the German market, combining live television, on-demand content, apps, and media libraries on one platform – for TV, tablets and smartphones.

Deutsche Telekom’s total revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% year-on-year to €17.8 billion. The company said that rapid customer growth at T-Mobile US made “a substantial contribution” to this revenue growth.

EBITDA was up 3.6% to €4.70 billion while net profit dropped 12.8% to €621 million. However, Deutsche Telekom said that adjusted for special factors, net profit remained more or less stable Q2 at around €1.1 billion.