TalkTalk adds 167,000 TV subscribers in 3Q 2013

Strong and accelerating TV growth (+167,000 net adds in Q2); now expect y/e base of nearly 1m

TalkTalk Group plc has announced Half Year Interim Results for the 6 months to 30 September 2013.

Continued strong growth in take-up of TV (+167,000)

We added 167,000 net new customers to our TV base, with a quarter of these customers new to TalkTalk, taking our total base of TV customers to 557,000. Demand for our proposition accelerated during the quarter despite unprecedented levels of advertising and promotional activity in the market. This is strong testament to the growing appeal of our compelling value proposition, aimed primarily at Freeview users.

KPIs (millions):

                    FY13          FY14
     -------------------  ------------
        Q2     Q3     Q4     Q1     Q2
     -----  -----  -----  -----  -----
TV       -  0.080  0.230  0.390  0.557

Launch of Essentials TV – £7.50 per month

At the end of the quarter we launched a TV proposition for our Essentials customers: a free YouView box, totally unlimited broadband and free evening and weekend calls at £7.50 per month plus line rental. Essentials TV is aimed at customers who don’t currently subscribe to any Pay TV service, but want to upgrade from Freeview and gain the benefits of catch up TV via services such as ITV Player or BBC iPlayer. It includes a smaller, lower cost YouView box (only one tuner and no PVR) which lets customers enjoy all the search, rewind and catch up functionality of YouView but without recording (our higher tier Plus TV package offers the ability to record with a YouView+ box). In addition, customers will enjoy the same breadth of access as Plus TV customers, to the TalkTalk player and all its flexible pay content. With the launch of Essentials TV, our TV proposition is now accessible to all our customers and we expect it to help drive a significant acceleration in TV net adds in H2. As a result we now expect a base of nearly 1m TV customers by the end of FY14.