IPTV was the main driver in Magyar Telekom’s TV business in 2017.
In its home market Hungary the telco ended the year with a total of 1,026,532 customers to its TV services, up from 969,013 in the corresponding period in 2016. While the number of cable and DTH subscribers fell during the year – down from 128,999 to 121,849 and 290,012 to 275,886 respectively, those receiving IPTV services rose from 550,002 to 628,797.
Meanwhile, blended TV ARPU rose from HUF3,325 (€10.65) to HUF3,437.
In Macedonia, on the other hand, Magyar Telekom’s subsidiary saw its IPTV subscriber total grow from 107,672 to 117,481 during 2017.
Magyar Telekom’s total revenues in Q4 were up 6.3% year-on-year to HUF161.4 billion, while EBITDA rose by 1.2% to HUF42.3 billion. Its full-year net profit was 25.6% lower at HUF40.2 billion.
In his comments on the results, CEO Christopher Mattheisen said: “In the fixed line segment, our focus was on network development and the restructuring of our broadband offering to enhance our competitiveness. Significantly, 2017 marked the introduction of the first 2Gbps package in the Hungarian market. Through such initiatives, we managed to grow our customer base by over 5%, both in broadband and the TV segment, and are confident that we are well positioned to capitalize on this growth going forward. Our efforts were also supported by Flip, our new brand, which offers one very attractively priced 3Play package that was well received by the market”.
He also said that “FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) remains one of our core focuses as we strongly believe that the key to long term success lies in the ability to offer truly integrated solutions to our customers. In line with this, we have extended our Magenta1 offer according to our customers’ requirements, including the possibility to swap fixed voice for mobile data in the package. This helped us to further expand our FMC subscriber base”.
In his comments on this year, he said: “Looking ahead to 2018, we will place even greater focus on the FMC segment where we are currently in a unique position to meet the full range of communication requirements of Hungarian households. In Macedonia, we are confident that, in spite of challenging market conditions, the EBITDA turnaround is sustainable”.
