TalkTalk, the fourth largest broadband provider in the United Kingdom, added 115,000 television homes in the last quarter of 2014, taking its total to 1.33 million. Between them TalkTalk and BT have managed to reach 2.42 million homes with their television offering, but how far has it driven their broadband businesses?
The increase in TalkTalk homes taking its television offering was the same as the previous quarter, reflecting a reduction in the rate of net additions, according to the informitv Multiscreen Index.
TalkTalk bundles its YouView based television box for its broadband subscribers. While it has delivered a lot of these boxes, it only reported a net addition of 15,000 broadband customers in the quarter, for a total of 4.24 million.
The company has since added around 75,000 Tesco broadband customers and acquired its Blinkbox business, as well as reaching a revenue share agreement with Netflix to offer the service to its customers.
BT meanwhile added 45,000 television homes, for a total of 1.09 million. However, BT added 119,000 broadband customers in the last quarter of 2014, taking its total to 7.59 million.
So between them, TalkTalk and BT have 2.42 million television homes in the United Kingdom. The offer is mainly a combination of free-to-air channels supplemented by some additional services delivered over broadband.
Although TalkTalk has gained more television homes in a shorter period, by giving away YouView boxes, it has added far fewer broadband customers than BT.
Over the course of 2014, TalkTalk added just 50,000 broadband customers, while BT gained 480,000. How far this can be attributed to the BT investment in Sport remains unclear.
With 11.8 million broadband homes in the United Kingdom between them, TalkTalk and BT have so far persuaded only one in five to take their television offer, although TalkTalk has the higher conversion rate, at 31%.
Meanwhile Sky and Virgin Media have around 9.80 million broadband customers between them. At the last count, Sky had 5.33 million broadband customers, ahead of Virgin Media with 4.46 million, putting TalkTalk in fourth place in terms of broadband market share.