More households in the Netherlands are taking their fixed and mobile services from the s ame provider, according to Telecompaper’s latest multiplay report.
Combined deals with fixed telephony, TV and/or internet with mobile telephony made up 42.5 percent of total multiplay revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017, against a bit over 27 percent the year before. VodafoneZiggo and T -Mobile Netherlands are both responsible for this growth. The first started in April 2017 with a promotional offer for customers taking both fixed and mobile calls; T-Mobile NL has been operating in this way since October 2017.
Total multiplay revenues lifted 1.5 percent in Q4 to EUR 1.15 billion. Revenue growth in multiplay was lower than in the third quarter when it advanced on the back of price increases at Ziggo and at various KPN brands for dual play and triple play packages.
Fixed-mobile make up third of connections. The total number of multiplay households grew slightly during the quarter, by 0.5 percent to 6.68 million. This is 2.3 percent more than at the end of 2016.
The share of fixed-mobile among all multiplay households grew to almost 33 percent, almost 13 percentage points more than at the end of 2016. Most multiplay households still have a traditional triple play bundle (broadband, fixed telephony and TV), but that share has declined to 47 percent from 51 percent year-on-year.
On the quad play market, KPN is the largest provider with 58.8 percent of connections, thanks in part to the early launch of the KPN Complete offer. VodafoneZiggo increased its market share in the quarter by 1.3 percentage points to 38.7 percent. Looking at quad-play revenues, growth at VodafoneZiggo was greater: to 36 percent from almost 34 percent, although KPN is still the largest with 62 percent.
The market positions of multiplay providers are more balanced than those on the quad-play market. VodafoneZiggo is the largest multiplay provider when it comes to connections with a 47.5 percent market share, followed by KPN with 39.7 percent. VodafoneZiggo is also the largest provider in terms of sales, with a 47.9 percent market share good for EUR 549 million, followed by KPN with a 42.6 percent share worth EUR 488 million.
Despite the growth of quad-play sales, triple play (three fixed and/or mobile services with one provider) is still the largest segment within multiplay, with a share of almost 52 percent. Quad play did grow in the quarter, by 1.8 percentage points to 33.5 percent.
For 2018, Telecompaper expects that fixed-mobile will increase even more in terms of both revenue and connections, again mainly due to growth at T-Mobile NL and VodafoneZiggo. In addition, people are expected to further move from traditional triple plays with broadband, fixed telephony and television to deals with broadband, television and mobile telephony, with the same provider.