UPC generates less revenue with more customers in the 2017 financial year
Despite an increase in the number of customers, cable network operator UPC reported lower revenue in fiscal year 2017. Revenue fell slightly from 1.36 billion Swiss francs in the previous year to 1.35 billion Swiss francs.
After a minus of 1.6 percent in the first half of the year, UPC (formerly Cablecom) was able to reverse the trend in the second half of the year with a plus of 0.4 percent. UPC CEO Eric Tveter justified the slight decline for the year as a whole in Thursday's statement with the "still highly competitive Swiss market".
UPC was able to increase the number of subscribers by a total of 10,000 compared to the previous year. UPC was able to compensate for the losses in its traditional core business of television primarily through strong growth in both mobile communications and fixed-network telephony.
UPC achieved its strongest growth in the still relatively small mobile communications business, according to the subsidiary of the British cable network group Liberty Global. In the fixed network, Switzerland's largest cable network operator attracted 26,000 more customers, bringing the total to 538,000 at the end of the year.
The decline in TV continued. The number of TV subscriptions at the end of 2017 was just under 1.2 million, after around 51,000 TV customers cancelled their subscriptions with UPC. The MySports channel launched in September had around 45,000 customers at the end of the year.
The Internet stagnated overall at just under 750,000 customers. The number of customers for basic services fell by 7,000 to 202,000 subscriptions, while the number of broadband Internet customers rose by 7,000 to 547,000. (SDA)
