\tGrowth in BT\u2019s EE unit and integration savings in its consumer business partly offset further declines in its enterprise, global services and wholesale divisions in its fiscal Q2 (calendar Q3).<\/p>\n
In the first quarterly update since confirming the\u00a0integration of EE into BT Consumer [1] under then EE CEO Marc Allera, the company reported it was on target to make an efficiency saving of \u00a3250 million in its current fiscal year.<\/p>\n
Allera \u2013 who is now CEO of the BT Consumer business unit \u2013 said the company had a \u201csignificant opportunity\u201d going forward in converged fixed, mobile and content services.<\/p>\n
Despite his confidence, figures for the three months to end-September showed a sharp slowdown in the number of new customers taking its TV packages \u2013 a central part of its multiplay strategy.<\/p>\n
During the quarter BT added 7,000 TV customers, well below the 63,000 signed up in the same period of 2016.<\/p>\n
The company’s attempts to cross-sell services is only showing a slight increase with “revenue generating units per customer” broadly flat at 2.01 services in fiscal Q2 2017 compared to 1.95 in the 2016 period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in a slowing broadband market, content is a way to differentiate your offering and viewing is up year-on-year,\u201d Allera said.<\/p>\n
Mobile boost
\nBT\u2019s mobile subscriber base \u2013 which comprises both EE- and BT-branded offerings \u2013 increased by 19,000 during the quarter as post paid growth of 279,000 subscribers was largely offset by a 260,000 decline in prepay.<\/p>\n
EE\u2019s operating profit was \u00a3137 million, up 65 per cent on the figure for fiscal Q2 2016, and revenue grew 4 per cent to \u00a31.3 billion.<\/p>\n
BT’s fiscal Q2 continued a run of difficult quarters, with the company posting 1 per cent declines in both revenue and pre-tax profit year-on-year to $5.9 billion and \u00a3666 million respectively.<\/p>\n
CEO Gavin Patterson said the company fared better over the first half of its fiscal year, with earnings “in line with our expectations as encouraging results in our consumer-facing lines of business, notably EE, helped offset ongoing challenges in our enterprise divisions, in particular Global Services.”<\/p>\n
Analyst reaction
\nCCS Insight’s Paolo Pescatore described the period as “a modest quarter” for BT but a “standout quarter”\u00a0for EE.
\n“More than double consumer line losses is a worry and TV net additions was extremely disappointing,” wrote Pescatore.\u00a0“More so in in light of the new European football season given the huge focus on sports and TV services. Despite its strong assets, the company is struggling to cross sell more services into its existing subscriber base. Marc Allera faces some tough decisions with the integration of the consumer units and the forthcoming Premier League rights auction.\u201d<\/p>\n[1] https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/featured-content\/home-banner\/bt-to-integrate-ee-into-new-consumer-unit\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Growth in BT’s EE unit and integration savings in its consumer business partly offset further …<\/p>\n
The post EE a bright spot amid broader BT struggles<\/a> appeared first on Mobile World Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n