Vodafone will launch domestic broadband and TV services in the UK next spring. Using infrastructure from the acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide two years ago, it plans to go head-to-head with those already offered by the likes of Sky, Virgin Media and BT.
Vodafone is becoming an increasingly important player in the European TV industry, with assets that now include Kabel Deutschland – KDG (Germany, Ono (Spain) and Forthnet (Greece).
It has a TV platform in the Netherlands and earlier this autumn was even linked with Liberty Global.
In the UK, its Red 4 G customers have been able to receive Sky’s Now TV since earlier this month.
Speaking in a Q&A following the release of their latest set of results, Philipp Humm, regional CEO, Europe, said the company sees the launch of such services in the UK as a defensive move and that it is important to defend its mobile business overall.
However, he refused to comment on whether it would go down the same route as EE in providing its customers with set-top boxes.
Vodafone had group revenues of £20,752 million (€26,476 million) in the six months ended September 30, or 8.9% more than a year earlier.
EBITDA was 5.5% up at £5,884 million and profit 69.5% down at £5,501 million.
In his comments on the results and strategic and commercial progress, group chief executive Vittorio Colao said: “We continue to enhance our 4G propositions with a mixture of attractive music, sport and TV content to increase adoption and usage. We now have content deals in 10 markets and 4G customers that buy content services typically use significantly more data than those without bundled content”.
He added, “Our transition from a predominantly mobile company to a unified communications provider is well advanced. Our fixed broadband customer base grew to around 11.2 million (10.5 million in Europe) at the end of the period, including 1.6 million customers gained from the acquisition of Ono in Spain in July 2014, making us one of the largest fixed broadband providers in Europe. Fixed service revenue across the Group now accounts for 18.7% of total service revenue”.
Colao also said that the process of integrating KDG in Germany and Ono in Spain remains on track.
