The Polish incumbent Orange Polska saw strong growth in its TV business in 2017, ending the year with 848,000 subscribers to its services.
This, according to the company’s latest set of results, was a 10.7% increase on the total a year earlier and the highest annual increase in five years.
Meanwhile, its retail fixed broadband customer total grew by a similar amount (+10.5%) to reach 2,438,000.
The company saw a 56% year-on-year increase in its convergent customer total thanks to the success of the Orange Love offer. As of the end 2017 it had around 2.5 million households connected with fibre, having added 1 million during the year. Its fibre customer base stood at 214,000, with 38,000 net adds in Q4, and had an adoption rate of 8.7%.
Orange Polska’s FY revenues in 2017 amounted to PLN11,381 million (€2,766 million), down 1.4% on the previous year. However, this was an improvement on 2016 and 2015, when its revenue fell by 2.4% and 2.9% respectively.
EBITDA in 2017 was PLN2,807 million (-11.3%) and the company’s net loss PLN60 million (-PLN1,746 million).
In his comments on the results, Jean-François Fallacher, the company’s CEO, said: “Last year we made significant changes to our commercial approach and announced a new strategic plan for 2017-2020 which we call Orange.one. We have become much more focused on value generation yet we were able to deliver very solid commercial results.
“Our convergent strategy is working. We got the product right, we made it our top commercial priority and we are constantly improving our connectivity. In terms of gross customer additions in the consumer market, around 70% of fixed broadband and close to 50% of mobile handset customers are signing up to Orange Love packages. At the end of 2017 exactly 50% of our broadband customers also used our mobile service. We see further significant potential in convergence which we will explore in 2018.
“Convergence was one of the key driving forces for the turnaround of our fixed broadband business. Customer growth in 2017 was the highest in a decade, at 11%, and allowed us to grow market share. In the pay-TV segment, we have improved our reputation as a reliable content provider. Customer growth approached 11% and was the highest in five years. In mobile post-paid, our commercial approach has achieved a better balance between volume and value.
“We significantly accelerated our fibre network deployment last year and we plan to maintain this level in 2018. The adoption rate for fibre now stands at 8.7% and is improving every quarter”.
