Accueil
Sport push sees BT take TV base to 1.6MN customers
Editor
| 28 July 2016
The substantial investment that it has made in content, especially premium football, is working for telco BT as revealed in its yearly results.
BT 5 May 2016For the year ended 31 March 2016, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19.042 billon, with reported profit before taxation of £3.029 billion. Driving the group’s cash generation during the year was the consumer division whose revenue rose 9% year-on-year to £1.175 billion. However, its profits slipped 7% annually to £239 million. The spur to the consumer group was the broadband and TV lines whose collective revenue was up 21%. Consumer 12-month rolling ARPU increased 8% to £37.8 per month driven by broadband, BT Sport Europe and BT Mobile.
Overall during the year, the company added 76,000 retail broadband customers, representing 79% of the ‘standard’ DSL broadband and fibre broadband market net additions. Superfast fibre broadband growth continued with 181,000 retail net additions, taking BT’s customer base to 4.3 million. Of its broadband customers, 47% are now on fibre networks that can support high-quality TV experiences from the likes of BT TV and BT Sport which in the year announced support for 4KTV sport and Netflix services.
During the year, BT added 59,000 TV customers, growing its total TV base to 1.6 million customers.
The sports channel’s average audience figures increased 58% excluding Showcase and digital channels. BT claims that during its reporting period it had brought content to millions of additional sports fans through a range of digital channels, streaming the Freeview BT Sport Showcase channel on YouTube for both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals. Across TV and social media platforms six million people watched each of these. It noted viewing figures for Real Madrid’s victory over Atlético Madrid in Milan reached 1.8 million via its BT Sport app, BT.com and the new BT Sport YouTube channel.
In July 206, the recently acquired EE made BT Sport available to all of its post-paid mobile customers in time for the start of the new football season. TalkTalk TV homes are also now able to subscribe to BT Sport channels on a rolling monthly contract directly from BT.
There was a large cost to this content. BT also revealed that its yearly underlying operating costs excluding transit on a pro forma basis were up 2%, reflecting additional UEFA rights costs and the launch of BT Mobile handsets. By the end of the financial year, BT said that it owned programme rights assets worth £388 million, compared with £225 at the same period last year and £284 million only a year ago.
Editor
| 28 July 2016
The substantial investment that it has made in content, especially premium football, is working for telco BT as revealed in its yearly results.
BT 5 May 2016For the year ended 31 March 2016, BT Group’s reported revenue was £19.042 billon, with reported profit before taxation of £3.029 billion. Driving the group’s cash generation during the year was the consumer division whose revenue rose 9% year-on-year to £1.175 billion. However, its profits slipped 7% annually to £239 million. The spur to the consumer group was the broadband and TV lines whose collective revenue was up 21%. Consumer 12-month rolling ARPU increased 8% to £37.8 per month driven by broadband, BT Sport Europe and BT Mobile.
Overall during the year, the company added 76,000 retail broadband customers, representing 79% of the ‘standard’ DSL broadband and fibre broadband market net additions. Superfast fibre broadband growth continued with 181,000 retail net additions, taking BT’s customer base to 4.3 million. Of its broadband customers, 47% are now on fibre networks that can support high-quality TV experiences from the likes of BT TV and BT Sport which in the year announced support for 4KTV sport and Netflix services.
During the year, BT added 59,000 TV customers, growing its total TV base to 1.6 million customers.
The sports channel’s average audience figures increased 58% excluding Showcase and digital channels. BT claims that during its reporting period it had brought content to millions of additional sports fans through a range of digital channels, streaming the Freeview BT Sport Showcase channel on YouTube for both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals. Across TV and social media platforms six million people watched each of these. It noted viewing figures for Real Madrid’s victory over Atlético Madrid in Milan reached 1.8 million via its BT Sport app, BT.com and the new BT Sport YouTube channel.
In July 206, the recently acquired EE made BT Sport available to all of its post-paid mobile customers in time for the start of the new football season. TalkTalk TV homes are also now able to subscribe to BT Sport channels on a rolling monthly contract directly from BT.
There was a large cost to this content. BT also revealed that its yearly underlying operating costs excluding transit on a pro forma basis were up 2%, reflecting additional UEFA rights costs and the launch of BT Mobile handsets. By the end of the financial year, BT said that it owned programme rights assets worth £388 million, compared with £225 at the same period last year and £284 million only a year ago.
