Vodafone’s TV customer base continues to grow strongly in Spain, supported by the new DSL service launched in March this year.
As of September 30, the end of H1 this year, it stood at 1.2 million customers. Meanwhile, Vodafone One, the company’s fully integrated cable, mobile and TV service, reached 2.0 million customers , up from 0.8 million a year earlier.
Elsewhere, Vodafone also grew its TV business in Germany, while in the UK it continued field trials of Vodafone TV.
Vodafone Group as a whole had revenues of €27,054 million in the six months to September 30, down 3.9% on a year earlier, while its operating loss of €4,702 million contrasted with an operating profit of €1,115 million.
Commenting on the results, Vittorio Colao, group chief executive, said: “We have further improved our performance during the first half of the financial year with Europe modestly ahead of our expectations – led by Germany and Italy – and good execution in AMAP. Our substantial network investments and ‘more-for-more’ propositions have allowed us to capture opportunities from strong data demand, supporting European mobile contract ARPU and continued growth in emerging markets. As Europe’s fastest-growing broadband operator, we are driving rapid uptake of our consumer fixed and TV services while our wholly converged Enterprise business continues to outperform its peers. We are now translating faster revenue growth into margin expansion, supported by our focus on cost efficiency.
“Competition in India has increased in the year, reducing revenue growth and profitability. We have responded to this changing competitive environment by strengthening our data and voice commercial offers and by focusing our participation in the recent spectrum auction on acquiring frequencies in the more successful and profitable areas of the country.
“Overall, we expect to sustain our underlying performance in the second half of the year and remain on track to meet our full-year objectives despite macroeconomic uncertainties. This performance allows for improved returns to our shareholders, as reflected by the growth in the interim dividend.”
