During 2013 the number of customers with Belgacom TV increased by 92,000 to a total of 1,479,000.
The marketing of bundles products is paying off for the Belgian incumbent. There were 40,000 additional fixed internet customers, bringing the total to 1,677,000.
1,314,000 customers have opted for the Packs, showing a growth of 76,000 customers. However, the total number of fixed line customers was down to 2,936,000, a decrease of 149,000.
“We closed what was undoubtedly a challenging and eventful year. A year in which Belgacom proved how valuable its consistent convergence strategy is, and how this strength makes it more resilient than some of its peers. This was evident in the last quarter of 2013 too, as our combined Fixed-Mobile offers, along with a successful year-end campaign, drove a solid operational performance, with strong subscriber growth for TV, internet and mobile,” said Dominique Leroy, CEO Belgacom, in a statement.
“We also saw encouraging trend changes in mobile revenue, with the negative year-on-year variance somewhat lessening for both the Consumer and Enterprise units as certain mobile disruption effects started to annualise. I’m proud of our achievements in a difficult market and intend to continue to build on our strengths. In my new role as Belgacom’s CEO, I also see opportunities to make the company more agile, cost-efficient and customer-friendly, and to reduce complexity in general.
“I believe we can strengthen our competitive position by further increasing our customer focus, continuing to leverage and invest in excellent, future-proof networks and boosting our brand image.”
For full-year 2013, the Belgacom Group recorded EUR 6,318 million revenue, or 2.2% less than for 2012.
Capital gains (EUR 31 million) and other one-off impacts excluded, the Belgacom Group revenue was 2.9% or EUR 186 million lower than the previous year. EUR 85 million (-1.3%) of this was driven by regulatory impacts, while the remaining revenue loss was largely due to the pressure on the mobile business, which could only be partly offset by a solid Fixed business and a positive full-year contribution of BICS.
The Belgacom Group closed the year 2013 with EUR 1,713 million EBITDA, or 4.9% lower than for 2012. One-offs excluded, this was -8.7%. Regulatory measures reduced the Group EBITDA by an estimated amount of EUR 48 million (-2.7%).
