Deutsche Telekom mulling standalone mobile OTT TV service

Timotheus Höttges

Deutsche Telekom is considering launching a standalone OTT TV product in Germany, according to Tim Höttges, the company’s CEO.

Speaking to analysts after Telekom released its full-year results, Höttges said that the company was “more and more considering a TV-only product, delivered over-the-top and via apps” that would be consumable via mobile devices.

Referring to Telekom’s mainstream Entertain pay TV offering, Höttges said that Deutsche Telekom still has “a way to go on the TV side” in terms of delivering accelerated subscriber growth, despite an improved performance in the last quarter.

Höttges said that Telekom aimed to be an aggregator of content rather than invest significantly in exclusive rights. He said that Telekom would invest in added functionality both in its fixed and mobile TV services.

The telco’s year-end results saw it add 61,000 TV customers in its domestic German market the final quarter, taking its total to 2.879 million across both IPTV and satellite platforms, up 7.3% year-on-year. Höttges said that the company’s new TV platform was helping to deliver accelerated growth in fixed broadband subscribers.

“We have seen an increase in TV adds. That’s definitely the case, but we want see more progress made with our new TV platform,” Höttges told analysts.

Höttges said that Telekom wanted to “create money” from the TV service as well as increasing numbers, and had introduced new services such as restart and catch-up TV as well as investing in long-tail sports content like hockey and women’s football.

CFO Thomas Dannenfeldt meanwhile said that Telekom’s launch of a mobile TV offering as a free service for Magenta Eins converged customers was intended to get customers using mobile data, in line with the company’s decision to increase the data volumes available to customers for the same price.

Telekom’s mobile TV service added 100,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Telekom’s international European markets had 4.05 million TV customers at the end of the year, up 3.7% year-on-year. The company provides TV services in countries including Hungary, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece and Romania.

Overall, Telekom posted revenues of €73.1 billion for the year, up 5.6%, and adjusted EBITDA of €21.4 billion, up 7.6%.