Swiss IPTV platform Swisscom TV has gained considerably less customers in 2017 than in 2016.
While 145,000 new households opted for the platform in 2016, only 49,000 signed up last year. Swisscom attributes the decline to the “strong competition” with cable operators in its financial report 2017.
In total, Swisscom TV grew by 3.5% to 1.47 million customers in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Swiss cable operators continued to lose classic cable TV customers last year, but less than in 2016. The number of cable TV customers dropped by 62,000 to 2.37 million, corresponding with a decline of 2.6%, according to cable industry association Suissedigital.
In 2016, the cable companies reported a loss of 80,300 TV customers.
The launch of sports channel MySports in September 2017, available exclusively on cable, contributed to less cable TV customers cancelling their subscription, according to Suissedigital.
The Swiss cable companies’ biggest growth drivers continue to be telephony and internet. The number of telephony customers rose in 2017 by 12.3% to 941,000 while the number of internet customers increased by 1.7% to 1.25 million.
