OTE TV base edges up as move to fibre accelerates

Greek telco OTE TV subscriber base reached 649,000 in the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 1.9% compared to 2022, despite what it described as competitive challenges and the persistence of piracy.

OTE said that, consistent with its strategy to invest in and offer superior TV content to its customers, it was leveraging its streaming platform and enriched content portfolio to drive its TV business.

OTE added 15,000 broadband subscribers to a total of 2,333,000. As a result, OTE’s broadband penetration on total fixed lines stood at 86%, up from 84% a year earlier.

Fibre subscribers were up 23.3% to a total of 1,489,000. Fiber (FTTx) additions stood at 41,000, with more than two-thirds coming from FTTH additions. Fibre penetration on total broadband base increased more than 10 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 63.8%. The share of subscribers using broadband speeds of 100Μbps or higher has now reached 45% of all FTTx connections, up from 28% a year earlier.

The operator said it plans to speed up FTTH deployment to reach approximately 1.4 million homes by the end of 2023, from 941,000 at March 31.

Following quarterly additions of 29,000, the total FTTH subscriber base reached 166,000, or 11% of its total fibre base, compared to 6% at the end of Q122. Total utilization on homes passed by OTE’s infrastructure increased, reaching 18%, compared to 12% one year earlier.

OTE’s overall revenues for the quarter dipped 2% to €803.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA fell by 1% to €322 million.

“Starting the year on a positive note, OTE delivered a solid quarter, underscoring its resilience and successfully addressing increased competition. In the Greek market, we maintained our strong mobile performance, while strict cost discipline yielded another increase in profitability. Our fiber deployment is moving apace, and the number of subscribers upgrading to FTTH is growing steadily,” said CEO Michael Tsamaz.

“We expect the competitive landscape to harden for the rest of the year. In this context, our healthy first quarter reinforces our confidence that we have the right strategy to meet new challenges. We are taking decisive measures to address the challenges our Romania unit still faces following its transformation into a mobile-only operator. In Greece, we are firmly on a continuing profitability growth track.”