Telecom Italia eyes 500k TV customers

Telecom Italia is targeting 550,000 video customers by the end of this year following its recent deals with Netflix, Sky and Mediaset Premium to distribute their services to TIMvision set-top boxes.

Speaking to analysts after the company released its second-quarter results at the end of last week, CEO Marco Patuano said that a large part of the company’s growing video customer base came from ADSL subscribers upgrading to high-speed fibre broadband services, which was “good news” for the company’s ARPU.

Patuano also said that one in five video subscribers were new to Telecom Italia’s broadband services. He said that partly as a result of this initiative, fixed line losses should start to reduce form the fourth quarter of this year.

Telecom Italia reported strong growth in its fibre high-speed broadband base in the three months to June at the end of last week, with a total next-generation broadband base of 374,000.

The company last week announced a redistribution deal with Mediaset Premium, the pay TV arm of leading commercial broadcaster Mediaset, rounding off a trio of deals that will see the telco make premium content from Sky and Netflix available to its customers.