The Swiss cable operators have lost 129,000 TV customers in the past 12 months, mainly due to the strong competition with IPTV provider Swisscom.
For telephony services, however, the Swiss cable companies gained 59,500 new customers and for internet access 13,000 new customers, according to cable operator association Suissedigital.
One in two of the total of 2.45 million TV customers have now signed up for internet from their cable operator. Three years ago, the share amounted to just 33%.
“Our latest figures show that the telecom business in Switzerland continues to be highly competitive,” Suissedigital’s managing director Simon Osterwalder said in Bern. “It is therefore even more encouraging that the communications networks managed to increase the share of internet customers in the past year. That’s the right response to the customer losses in the TV area.”
In total, the Swiss cable operators served 1.22 million customers with internet access on June 30, 2016, corresponding with an increase by 1.1% in the past 12 months, while providing 789,700 customers with telephony (+8,1%).
Their largest competitor, telco Swisscom, increased the customer figure of its IPTV platform Swisscom TV by 162,000 to a total of 1.4 million in the past 12 months. Three quarters of the IPTV customers are now signed up for could-based service Swisscom TV 2.0.
