Just how well did Liberty Global’s operations in Central and Eastern Europe perform in 2015?
One of the first figures I always turn to when looking at its results are those for DTH. These show a modest increase, with the figure rising from a combined total of 783,300 to 829,400 households in the year to December 31. Take-up grew in all four markets, with Hungary and Romania still accounting for the lion’s share of subscribers.
Looking more generally at Liberty at the five regional markets the company is present in, Poland’s UPC Polska increased its reach to almost 3 million households in 2015. At the same time, its broadband internet subscriber total exceeded one million, with business customers being offered access speeds of up to 600 Mbps.
Other important landmarks included its Horizon service reaching the 100,000-subscriber landmark in December and the acquisition of a number of smaller operators. UPC Polska’s programming offer also continued to improve and consisted of 167 channels, almost half of which (78) were in HD, as of year’s end.
Meanwhile in the Czech Republic, UPC Czech increased the number of households it was able to offer digital TV and broadband services to by 62,600 to 1,388,500. This was achieved by modernisation in 14 cities and the construction of a new network, and the operator’s total reach, as of year’s end, stood at 1,421,800 households.
Other landmarks included the launch of Horizon and My Prime, with the former already being used by over 200,000 customers as of the end of December; the introduction of the shared Wi-Fi network UPC Wi-Free; and increasing internet access speeds to 300 Mbps.
UPC Czech plans to focus mostly on the construction of new networks this year in order to add a further 70,000 households.
In Romania, UPC was able to increase its reach by 13%, or 300,000 homes, in 2015, adding 57,000 new customers and over 202,000 new subscriptions during the year. Its annual revenues, in local currency terms, were 9.2% higher than in 2014.
Digital TV subscriptions meanwhile increased by over 8% to 593,200 in 2015, with just over a quarter (26%) of the total opting for HD services.
Other highlights included the introduction of a new modem giving customers internet access at up to 500 Mbps in their homes.
UPC Romania has allocated €50 million for further investment in 2016, both for launching new digital services and expanding and increasing the capacity of its network. It is also likely to seek out further acquisitions, having bought a number of smaller operators in 2015.
Liberty’s operations in Hungary and Slovakia also performed well last year and both can look forward to further growth, albeit in highly competitive markets, in 2016.
