BT shares hit as it loses television customers

SHARES in BT took a drubbing yesterday after the telecoms giant revealed falling third-quarter revenues and earnings as it lost 5,000 pay TV customers.

The group saw adjusted earnings drop 2% to £1.8bn in its third quarter to December 31, while sales fell 3% to £5.97bn.

BT put the declines down to increased investment in mobile devices and “customer experience”, along with higher business rates charged on its network assets as well as pension costs.

Shares were down nearly 5% to 244p as investors digested an update which showed 5,000 pay TV customers deserted the firm.

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “Concerningly for a company which has pinned much of its hope for future growth on a sports rights led TV strategy, the company lost 5,000 TV customers in the last three months of 2017.”

The numbers come ahead of a Premier League TV rights auction, which has seen intense bidding wars between BT and rival Sky in the past.

The duo announced a deal that will allow them to sell their channels on each others’ platforms in December, which lessens the likelihood of a similar scenario.

But Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The eye-watering amounts of money paid for players reflects in part the gargantuan sums that BT and Sky plough into securing televised games for their sports channels.

“The fear is that Amazon and Facebook may throw their hats in the ring this time around, inflating the cost of rights beyond the £5bn Sky and BT forked out last time.

“A bigger spend wouldn’t be good for shareholders, or customers for that matter, though the footballers will be chuckling all the way to the bank.”