VodafoneZiggo, the JV between Liberty Global and Vodafone in The Netherlands has a said that its consumer cable revenue decreased by 1% in Q4 and 1.5% in the full year 2018.
The €4 million decline in Q4 was the net result of a price increase implemented in July, an increase in converged discounts, a reduction in telephony and video-on-demand usage, and lower average RGUs YoY.
Internet and enhanced video RGUs declined by 2,000 and 9,000, respectively, in Q4 due to increased competition. In total, we added 18,000 new broadband customers in FY 2018. Q4 consumer cable ARPU10 increased 1% YoY to €47
110,000 new Ziggo Mediabox XL customers were added in FY 2018 (18,000 in Q4), bringing total penetration of its enhanced video base to 42%. During FY 2018, 300,000 new customers downloaded and actively used Ziggo Go (the vmulti-screen video app). In total, the app reached 1.5 million active users by the end of Q4.
The company also said its new 4K next-generation TV entertainment platform is planned for launch in Q1 2019, this is the cloud-based Horizon platform.
The combination of mobile and fixed seems to have positive effects: there is growth in the number of customers purchasing both fixed and mobile subscriptions from VodafoneZiggo. Currently, 32% of the customers do so. At Ziggo, the number of customers who also purchased a mobile subscription from Vodafone grew by 183,000 in 2018. Conversely, 294,000 Vodafone customers also bought fixed subscriptions from Ziggo last year.
The JV is actively promoting combining mobile and fixed subscriptions by offering ‘free’ double data bundles and extended TV offers including premium channels including Fox Sports en Ziggo Sport Totaal.
In a related development, Ziggo cable is now terminating analogue TV distribution in the province of Gelderland.