IPTV continued to drive growth in Magyar Telekom’s TV business in 2015.
As of year’s end, the company had a total of 960,092 TV customers in its home market, up from 924,628 a year earlier. The majority (497,662, up from 445,044 a year earlier) were IPTV, with the remainder DRTH (306,312, down from 306,627) and cable (156,118, down from 172,957).
Meanwhile, blended TV ARPU was HUF3,390 (€11) in 2015, up from HUF3,111 a year earlier, and Magyar Telekom’s blended TV market share in 2015 was, at 27.6%, only slightly higher than the 27.2% total posted in 2014.
In other TV markets Magyar Telekom has a presence in, its Macedonian subsidiary has 103,422 IPTV subscribers as of the end of 2015, up from 98,216 a year earlier.
Meanwhile, in Montenegro, the corresponding figures were 60,812 (2015) and 61,127 (2014).
Magyar Telekom had revenues of HUF656.3 billion in 2015, up from HUF626.4 billion a year earlier. EBITDA amounted to HUF187.3 billion (HUF181.2 billion).
Commenting on the company’s overall results, Magyar Telekom CEO Christopher Mattheisen, who has just had his mandate renewed by the company’s board of directors until May 31,2019, said: “It fills me with great pride to report the highest Group revenue since 2008 at HUF656 billion for full year 2015 and a significantly improved EBITDA at HUF187 billion. Following the turn-around in our revenue, margins and most latterly EBITDA, we have also managed to return to positive Free Cash Flow generation in 2015. This will serve as the cornerstone for the resumption of dividend payments relating to last year’s earnings, with a dividend payment of 15 forint per share proposed to our Annual General Meeting in April 2016.
“By providing integrated fixed and mobile services, we continued next generation IP network development across all segments which will strengthen our technology leadership positions further. We launched our MagentaOne Quad-Play offer in both Hungary and Macedonia to maximize the telecommunication share of the household spending wallet, with Montenegro following in January of this year. Meanwhile, our focus on costs has allowed us to become a leaner and more efficient company. Following the conclusion of our headcount reduction program in Hungary, our focus will be on product and process simplification and digitalization, including moving more of our customer servicing online.
“In Hungary, we have reached over 97% 4G population coverage with almost a million customers on our 4G network. Moreover, we have rolled out High Speed Internet access to almost half a million households. Consequently, it was the growth in mobile and fixed line broadband, as well as in TV that drove the outstanding revenues in Hungary, along with a significant increase in System integration/IT and energy sales. I am also delighted to announce that after five years of decline, T-Systems has also managed to turn around its EBITDA and return to growth.
“Looking to 2016, we remain focused on the continued execution of our turnaround strategy which involves growing our profitability in line with our targets. The ongoing shift in our revenue mix, achieved by migrating customers to bundled packages across Magyar Telekom’s operations, is expected to mitigate the decline in voice revenue. Following our exit from the residential gas business and a move away from full consolidation of the B2B energy business, we expect revenues of HUF580 to HUF 590 billion in 2016, and have upgraded our 2017 revenue guidance to a range of between HUF585 and HUF595 billion.
“Overall, our reported EBITDA is expected to range between HUF187 and HUF191 billion fin 2016, whilst our updated EBITDA guidance for 2017 is between HUF189 and HUF193 billion forint. The growing contribution from System integration and IT activities across our geographies will play a key role in achieving our target of growing Group EBITDA from one year to the next. In terms of Capex, despite continued network development, we expect an annual decline of approximately 10% in both 2016 and 2017.”