SFR reported poor second quarter results on the back of subscriber losses across many of its divisions.
The French operator, which is owned by Altice group, stated there were year-on-year subscriber losses across the B2C, B2B and wholesale divisions of the company, that have meant revenue in the second quarter declined by 4.3 per cent year-on-year to €2.7 billion ($3 billion) pro forma.
However, the revenue trend for the full year of 2016 is still expected to be better than the full year for 2015, which was down 3.5 per cent year-on-year.
For the second quarter in B2C, revenue was down 5.2 per cent compared to the same period 2015. B2C fixed revenue was down 2.0 per cent year-on-year as a result of the decline in the DSL customer base, SFR stated. Yet it added that content bundling and recent price initiatives are supporting improvements in fixed ARPU, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year (blended fibre/DSL ARPU increased to €35.60 in the second quarter 2016 from €33.90 in the first quarter 2016 and €35.30 in the second quarter 2015).
Meanwhile, B2C mobile revenue was down 7.1 per cent as a result of the decline in the mobile customer base, and to a lesser extent lower ARPU year-on-year.
In B2B, revenue was down 4.5 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter, but B2B mobile revenue was flat compared to the previous quarter with network quality and service improvements reducing churn, the company claimed. It noted that, “[w]e are currently undergoing a transformation of SFR’s B2B business, but the B2B market in France is in decline”.
SFR also stated that operational momentum has increased its confidence for expectations over the rest of 2016. It hopes for an improvement in revenue throughout the year, as the company maintained momentum in fibre customer net additions during the quarter. The operator is also bullish on the full year due to a reduction in B2C mobile postpaid churn year-on-year, with net losses of 199,000 in the second quarter 2016 versus 314,000 in the same period 2015.
The company added that it is seeing early benefits of network upgrades, content initiatives, and a focus on improving customer service, all of which points to hopeful improvements in figures for the third and fourth quarters of 2016.
For more:
- see this SFR results PDF
Related articles:
Report: SFR wins union approval for 5,000 job cuts
Report: SFR plans to cut 5,000 jobs between 2017 and 2019
Orange reports lower Q2 revenue in France as price war continues