Belgacom TV revenues grow 53%

Belgacom’s IPTV business has recorded a year on year revenue growth of 53.3% in the first six months of 2009.

An additional 82,000 customers so far this year took subscriber numbers to 589,000, delivering revenues of €59 million. The figures include 75,000 so-called ‘second stream’ users.

“Belgacom TV has become the success story of the audio-visual sector, in scarcely four years. This performance is recognized internationally. Belgacom’s digital TV now ranks among the top 3 most innovative IPTV solutions in the world,” said CEO Didier Bellens.

The success is being attributed in part to the 20.09 campaign that boosted first quarter take-up, before slowing to 33,000 in Q2. Television ARPU per household reached €19.8 at the end of June 2009, compared to €19.5 in the previous year.

So far this year, Belgacom has invested €25 million in the further deployment of its Broadway project, delivering VDSL and Fiber to the street cabinet. A total of €44 million has gone into Belgacom TV, covering the platform, set-top boxes and content.

The VDSL2 investment has led to a TV footprint of over 87% that provides capacity of up to 20 Mbps, allowing customers to view two HDTV channels while still being able to surf the internet.