Telecom firm TalkTalk looks to have made a good start with its foray into the TV market as it has won 29,000 customers in a month — more than Sky, Virgin or BT each managed with their pay-TV services in the whole of the last three months.
Chief executive Dido Harding has positioned TalkTalk as a value-for-money provider of broadband and home phone services, and has pushed into TV and mobile since the summer. She is winning some TV customers by offering a free YouView set-top box, worth £299, with no monthly subscription charge, if they sign up for a telecoms package for 18 months. However, there is a £50 installation charge.
YouView offers the same array of free channels as Freeview but the internet-enabled box also allows viewers to record and catch up on TV from the last seven days and to pay for movies or Sky Sports.
TalkTalk’s total net customers dropped by only 4000 to 4.04 million in the last three months against a fall of 43,000 a year ago — the best quarterly performance for two years.
“We do really think we are at a turning-point,” said Harding, pointing out that as customers take more services they become more loyal.
“More and more of our customers want to take more products from us.”
Half-year pre-tax profit rose 12% to £46 million despite a 1.9% dip in revenues to £828 million.
The company’s shares today rose 8% to a record high of 201p.
