It looks as though Swisscom did not get the memo on video subscriber losses, which have afflicted many Pay TV operators around the world. As indicated in its earnings report last week, the operator added 52,000 subscribers to its Swisscom TV service in the fourth quarter alone. Over the past year, it has grown its IPTV base by 42 percent, to 608,000.
The operator has also grown its Swisscom TV Air from zero in 2010 to 319,000 today. The advertising-supported version of this digital TV service to the mobile phone, tablet and computer is free; the ad-free version costs 9 CHF (Euro 7.5, $10). Swisscom’s broadband subscriber count also grew 5 percent. The company serves about 5.3 million mobile subscribers.
Reports on its 4Q earnings focused on a CHF 1.2 billon write-down for its investment in Italian unit Fastweb (which it acquired in 2007), anticipated costs of mobile license renewals and new spectrum and an increase in capital expenditures.
The growth in CapEx could benefit video services. The company is weighted toward mobility, but converged services are blurring that line. “We have the same live sports events on mobile, as well as on the Web, for example, on the iPad,†said Volker Dietzel, Swisscom Head of Development TV and Portal Services.
In January, Swisscom announced plans to roll out two new video services: time-delayed television viewing and a channel-changing iPad app. The catch-up service enables viewing of up to 70 channels within a 24-hour period. Swisscom has been testing the free service to several hundred customers and aims to reach all Swisscom TV Plus customers, in stages, by mid 2012.
That service—and others—could impact Swisscom’s IT and server infrastructure requirements. “In around two years, besides live TV, Swisscom will also have moved other entertainment services, like VOD and personal video recording, into the cloud,†Dietzel said.
Like other Pay TV operators, Swisscom also has leveraged the application development and networking capabilities of the iPad. It launched an app enabling subscribers to watch Swisscom TV in July 2010 and in January announced that a new iPad app soon would be available at the Apple Store that adds remote control functionality to the existing features. The app appears to have been updated this week. The existing app had been downloaded 150,000 times.
While total revenues at Swisscom declined 4.2 percent in 2011, the company is doing a brisk business in VOD and exclusive live sports events. There were 6.3 million of these “paid assets†in 2011. “Here, we see a trend that consumers are buying more and more each month,†Dietzel said
