How well are Orange’s TV services performing in the CEE they are present in?
Piecing together the information contained in its latest set of results paints a mixed picture. Take Poland, or instance, where it ended the first quarter with 798,000 subscribers to its IPTV and satellite TV services. While this was 5.4% more than a year earlier, the company’s net income, which of course was derived from not only TV but also other fixed line and mobile services, fell by 42.7% year-on-year to PLN98 million (€22.3 million).
The reasons for this sharp drop were attributed to lower EBITDA, along with higher net financial costs following payment for new spectrum.
Meanwhile, in Romania we learned that the company ended the first quarter with 294,000 subscribers to its satellite TV service – an impressive 54.5% increase on the previous year.
However, information about its financial performance was less easy to track down, with the release only stating that, as part of its Central European country group, Orange Romania’s revenues in Q1 grew by 6.5% year-on-year, due in part to increased fixed satellite TV services, to €235.5 million.
What was particularly interesting was a report in the local media quoting Liudmila Climoc, the company’s new CEO, who said that it planned to respond to market trends and become a key player in the provision of integrated fixed/mobile services.
In Slovakia, Orange ended the first quarter with 88,000 of its 210,000 fixed-line customers opting for digital TV services. Its total revenues in Q1 amounted to €135.3 million, a 2% reduction on 2015.
Orange Slovakia points out that the fastest growing component of its revenues is fixed-line. It grew by 13% year-on-year in Q1 despite accounting for only 4.6% of total revenues.
As an interesting footnote, Orange introduced a new offer earlier this week allowing its TV customers greater flexibility in choosing the composition of their thematic packages.