Belgian telco Belgacom had reached 868,000 subscribers for its IPTV service 'Belgacom TV' by the end of the second quarter of this year, adding 54,000 customers in the preceding three months and 116,000 customers in the first six months of this year.

As a result of its sustained customer take-up, the telco estimates that it has further increased its share of the Belgian pay-TV market in all regions of the country, despite there being high penetration of cable TV in Belgium.  Revenues from its IPTV service for the first half of this year reached €86mn, up 46% year-on-year, contributing to the company's top-line growth and group profits.

In addition, Belgacom has continued to increase the number of multi-play customers, with 741,000 customers subscribing to one of its multi-play packs by the end of June, having added 88,000 customers in the second quarter of this year.  Within its residential segment, around 44% of customers have two Belgacom packs or more, with a growing percentage of customers on a quad-play offer.

The telco invested €376mn in the first half of this year, with much of this going to improvements in the optical fibre network which will enable it to boost Internet speeds and expand its IPTV footprint.  By the end of June, 75% of Belgian households could access Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC) services.

Group revenues for the first six months of this year reached €3.305bn, up 10.3% year-on-year, while EBITDA rose 0.5% by the same comparison to reach €999mn.