Vodafone lost 75,000 TV subscribers in Germany in the quarter ended December 31, 2020.
However, in its European operations as a whole it gained 18,000, ending last year with a total of 18,421,000. The strongest growth was seen in Spain, the 46,000 additions in the quarter bringing the total to 1,564,000. There were more modest gains in Portugal (+22,000) and Italy (+12,000), with other European markets, including the three (Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania), growing by 13,000 to 2,402,000.
In its latest results, the company notes that the loss in TV customers in Germany was partly due to the termination of a bulk contract. Despite launching the DAZN pay-TV channel and new Apple set-top box in the quarter, its sales were impacted by the December lockdown due to the pandemic. Its converged product GigaKombi nevertheless continued to grow, adding 28,000 consumers. As of the end of the quarter, the company had over 1.6 million converged accounts in Germany.
Meanwhile in Spain, Vodafone’s new box-less TV app helped the company gain more TV customers.
Vodafone had total revenues of €11,201 million in its operations in the quarter ended December 31, 2020, down a reported 4.7% on a year earlier. Of this, €7,404 million (-2.4% reported) was in Europe, with Germany accounting for €2,912 million (+1% reported).
Vodafone notes that its service revenue growth in Germany was reflected across all segments in the quarter. In the fixed sector, for instance, fixed revenues grew by 1.4%, with the company adding 98,000 cable broadband customers, including 35,000 migrations from legacy broadband DSL. A quarter of its cable broadband customer base subscribed to speeds of at least 400 Mbps, and Gigabit speeds were available to 22.3 million households on its cable broadband network. Furthermore, its broadband customer base increased by 56,000 to 10.9 million despite its retail stores being closed in December.
