BCE announces 2021 financial targets, 5.1% dividend increase and capital investment acceleration of at least $1 billion to advance fibre and wireless network expansion over the next 2 years.
Bell’s prepaid customer base decreased by 11,672 net subscribers in Q4, compared to a net gain of 1,983 in Q4 2019. The decline reflected lower overall market activity due to reduced immigration and fewer visitors to Canada during COVID-19, resulting in 16.8% fewer gross additions. Prepaid churn improved 0.35 percentage points to 4.79%. For full-year 2020, prepaid net additions decreased 66.5% to 37,982 on 5.4% fewer gross additions and a higher churn rate of 4.60%.
Bell’s total wireless customer base in 2020 increased 2.6% to 10,221,683, comprising 9,385,679 postpaid subscribers, up 2.5% over 2019, and 836,004 prepaid customers, up 4.8%.
Bell TV added 21,106 new net retail IPTV subscribers(5), down from 22,039 in Q4 2019. The decrease was the result of reduced sales activity during COVID-19, Fibe TV and Alt TV market maturity, and ongoing over-the-top substitution, partly offset by lower customer churn and strong demand for the Virgin TV service launched in Q3 2020. For full-year 2020, total retail IPTV net additions were 39,191, compared to 91,476 in 2019. At the end of 2020, Bell served 1,806,373 retail IPTV subscribers, up 2.2% over 2019.
At the end of 2020, Bell remained Canada’s #1 TV provider with a combined total of 2,738,605 retail IPTV and satellite TV subscribers, down 1.2% from 2019.
Subscriber revenue was also lower compared to Q4 2019, due to the timing of certain contract renewals with Canadian TV distributors that was partly offset by higher revenue from Crave streaming subscriber growth in 2020. Crave subscribers totalled approximately 2.8 million at the end of 2020, up 8% over 2019.
