The state group Cabo Verde Telecom (CVTelecom) complains about the loss of customers caused by unlicensed pay TV service providers, pointing out the ineffectiveness of the regulator, which it also accuses of having an “excessively administrative and intrusive posture”.
According to data from the latest report and accounts prepared this Friday by Lusa, the largest telecommunications group in Cape Verde lost 10% of pay TV customersaccumulating a new annual drop that left, at the end of 2021, the total number of subscribers to that service at 6,280.
As for pay television, the segment, for the second consecutive year, experienced a decline in the customer base, although at a much more contained level, as a result of competition from unlicensed providers, a situation in which the group has demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the competent authorities, without, unfortunately, showing signs of a break with the current framework”, reads the document.
It adds that “despite the difficulties inherent in operating in a market in which the licensing and regulation mechanisms are undoubtedly deficient”, the group “continues to be committed to adding value to the market in the pay television service through, in particular, the enrichment of the content grid, the launch, soon, of interactive TV functions and the bundling of TV with the rest of the group’s services”.
The group is in the process of merging the three telecommunications companies, fixed, mobile, Internet and pay TV, and plans to start operating with a single company for these four areas.
Despite this scenario, CVTelecom profits increased by 36.5% in 2021, to more than 2.6 million euros, and for the third consecutive year sales grew again, according to the report and the accounts.
In the document, the group’s management again criticizes, as in previous years, the “persistence of the Regulator in maintaining an excessively administrative and intrusive position in the activity of the operators”.
In a recurring criticism of the actions of the Multisectoral Agency for Economic Regulation (ARME), the administration states that this position is “sometimes unrelated to the government’s initiatives to structure the sector” and “has contributed to maintaining a regulatory climate unfavorable, increasing the CVTelecom group’s fears about the resulting threats to investment and innovation”.
Thus, during 2021 we found several regulatory interventions that, in the opinion of the CVTelecom group, were, in some cases, extemporaneous and, in others, questionable in terms of their proportionality or relevance in the market context. On the other hand, it is worth noting the continuity of a clear breach of certain essential issues for the sustainability of the sector, namely, those related to the fight against piracy and the illegal offer of content, as well as the regulation of the activity of OTT. [distribuição de conteúdos através da Internet]which has contributed to a great loss of value in the communications market, endangering the adequate profitability of the large investments made”, criticizes the administration.
As of December 31, 2021, the CVTelecom group had 418 workersan increase compared to the previous year, “justified by the need to reinforce the technical areas, in order to support the new business areas and the growing complexity of the systems”.
“However, it should be noted that the group remains committed to its plan for the progressive optimization of its workforce, specifically through the continuity of early retirement programs, but also through the reinforcement and internalization of skills in key areas and extensive automation. and Robotization Program”, says the administration, in the report and accounts.
In 2021, 19 direct jobs were created, to which 35 were added in the provision of services, which, added to the number of casualties, specifically due to retirement or early retirement, allowed safeguarding stability in the cost structure with personnel. For the next two years, it is expected that, in global terms, there will be a slight increase in the number of employees in service to, as has been said, strengthen internal capacities, but also to prepare for the generational transition, which will be felt with greater sharpness, from 2024 “, he adds.
Source: Observadora
