Tele2 sees TV base decline but positive reaction to Viaplay offerings

Tele2 saw its TV base and TV revenues decline in the second quarter, but reported a positive reaction to new packages that include streaming service Viaplay.

Kjell Johnsen

The company’s digital TV base dropped by 8,000 in the quarter,  a smaller decline than the 13,000 lost in the same quarter in 2022.

Cable and fibre TV subs fell by 1,000, while the digital-terrestrial base dropped by 7,000.

However, average revenue per user in TV increased from SEK246 to SEK252, pushed up by a higher average for remaining terrestrial users.

Digital TV revenues for the quarter dropped by 2% to SEK663 million (US$65 million), driven down by a fall in digital-terrestrial revenues of 5%. The company’s overall revenues for the quarter rose 3% to SEK7.15 billion, with rises in its operations in the Baltic states and fibre and cable fixed broadband helping offset declines in prepaid mobile, fixed telephony and DSL broadband.

President and CEO Kjell Johnsen said that the company was moving to digital sales channels and improving customer satisfaction as a result, as part of a “a multi-year journey in the Swedish market towards convergent, easy to understand and reliable services that cater for a growing segment of the market that Tele2 has unique capabilities to serve”.

He said that the company’s “mobile, broadband and aggregated TV & streaming services represent powerful building blocks for a converged strategy”.

Tele2  forged a streaming partnership with Viaplay last year ultimately to include the streaming service offered direct through Tele2 Play.

The partnership followed close on the launch of Tele2 Play+, Tele2’s combined on-demand and linear streaming offering.