Launched in April 2014, Swisscom TV 2.0 already has 550,000 customers and is gaining 40,000-50,000 a month, according to Peter Fregelius, head of entertainment devices at the Swiss telco.
He added that the service is taking 10,000 customers a month from UPC and other cable operators.
Fregelius said that Swisscom sees TV as an essential part of its bundling strategy. The strategic rationale behind Swisscom TV 2.0 is the need to control the entertainment offering to secure the broadband base. In this, it is crucial to have full flexibility to manage and expand the TV proposition into a complete entertainment service; cooperate and embrace OTT content; and engage with the end user, where he spends 3-4 hours each day viewing.
Fregelius also said that there are now more than 750,000 Android-based STBs in the market, with a lower swap rate than the former TV 1.0 proposition.
Swisscom TV 2.0’s offer includes over 250 TV channels, at least 100 of which are in HD; seven days replay TV on all channels; unlimited parallel recording of up to 1,200 hours of storage – even in the past (nPVR); and an app store with over 100 apps, including YouTube.
Viewers always have more than 40,000 content assets to choose from.