Swisscom adds 183,000 TV customers in 2012

Thursday, February 7th, 2013
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BERNE — Swisscom has released its results report for 2012.

The number of Swisscom TV connections increased year-on-year by 183,000 or 30.1% to 791,000 (+63,000 in the fourth quarter). Around 200,000 Swisscom TV customers are already testing the replay function, which allows programmes from around 70 channels to be watched up to 30 hours after they have been broadcast. Around 80% of active replay customers already use catch-up TV.

Fastweb posted more than twice as many net customer gains in 2012 than in 2011, with the bundled TV and broadband offering in partnership with Sky Italia attracting 151,000 customers to date.

Operational Data (‘000)

                                                  2011                2012
                                    ------------------  ------------------
                                     Q1   Q2   Q3   Q4   Q1   Q2   Q3   Q4
                                    ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---
TV customers Switzerland            469  512  556  608  655  694  728  791
 Residential                        455  497  539  589  635  672  705  766
 Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises    14   15   17   19   20   22   23   25

Since December, Swisscom DSL customers have received digital TV free of charge: Swisscom TV light offers access to over 60 TV channels, including 22 in HD.

The most important modes of transmission for digital television in Switzerland are satellite, antenna (terrestrial), cable, Internet and mobile. Cable television, satellite reception and Swisscom TV account for the largest market shares. Roughly 85% of all households have an analogue or a digital cable TV connection; of these, around 75% have a digital TV connection (status as of September 2012). With 791,000 digital TV customers, Swisscom is market leader in digital cable television only six years after entering the business. Sunrise Communications has been offering its own digital television services since 2012.

Market shares digital TV in Switzerland*

  Antenna TV   Swisscom TV      Cable TV    Sunrise TV  Satellite TV
------------  ------------  ------------  ------------  ------------
          6%           27%           46%            2%           19%

* Swisscom estimate