Belgacom grows TV base

Belgacom TV added 49,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2009, taking its total TV customer base to 555,000.

TV ARPU grew by 5.7% year-on-year to €20.40. Total revenue from the TV platform grew by 62% year-on-year to €30m. Belgacom said the unit contributed positively to EBITDA.
Belgacom invested a total of €27m in its TV platform in the first quarter, including set-tops and content.

The company had a total of 1.487 million broadband customers at the end of March, up 202,000 year-on-year, including its Scarlet acquisition. Belgacom added 22,000 broadband customers in the first quarter. The company said it had now expanded its VDSL2 network to cover 68.7% of households, providing internet speeds of up to 20Mbps, which can enable it to deliver two HDTV channels simultaneously. The increased VDSL2 coverage allowed Belgacom TV to be offered to 87% of the customer base.