TV blurs Q2 picture for Denmark’s TDC
The only consolation perhaps for TDC's top brass was that net customer losses at the TV business were not as bad as the previous quarter.
Subscriptions for TV, which sits within the Nuuday division, fell 41,000 in Q2. The loss was 61,000 through the previous three months.
TDC pinned much of the blame for declines in revenue and gross profit on sliding linear television popularity.
Turnover fell 7.7%, year-on-year, to 3.92 billion Danish krone (US$621 million). Gross profit was down 8.3%, over the same period, to DKK2.8 billion ($444 million).
But there were worryingly persistent declines in customer numbers elsewhere in the Nuuday unit.
Walk that way
TDC's residential broadband subscriber base shrank by 20,000 in Q2 (following a bruising 31,000 decline the previous quarter), and the number of residential mobile subscribers fell by 22,000 (after a 35,000 drop during Q1).
Add in lower roaming revenue caused by lockdown restrictions and Nuuday turnover fell 6.4%, to DKK3.6 billion ($571 million).
The knock-on effect of fewer "revenue generating units" (customers) in Q1 2020 and the previous quarter, said TDC, pretty much explained a 3.7% Q2 decline in EBITDA, year-on-year, to a shade over DKK1.6 billion ($254 million).
EBITDA performance would have been worse had TDC not had some success in trimming operating expenses, which were down from DKK1.42 billion ($225 million) in Q2 2019 to DKK1.22 billion ($193 million).
Full-year 2020 guidance assumes a flat EBITDA, and "strategic capex investments" in 5G and fiber of around DKK2.6 billion ($412 million).
Part of that capital outlay will be allocated to swapping out Huawei 5G kit with Ericsson equipment.
Related posts:
- Ericsson sets sights on 5G gains in Europe amid Huawei backlash
- Eurobites: TDC in need of TLC after Nuuday dents Q1
- Startup Intros NB-IoT Cow Capsule, Inks Deal With TDC
— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading
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