According to Farwerck, KPN is “in all reasonableness” trying to pass the increased costs on to customers. ‘We’re looking at it very carefully. Last year we used the Internet at 3.5 percent and mobile, for example, almost 6. We don’t want to dump everything on our customers, but we also want to shoulder some of the burden ourselves.”
“Knowing people out is not a wise strategy”
Cost reduction
KPN wants to cut costs further, says the CEO. According to Farwerck, the company is committed to “simplify, automate and digitize” and is making great strides in that direction. He says he sees nothing in the layoffs. ‘Knowing people out is not a wise strategy. You can’t go on like this for long.” Instead, streamlining and simplifying processes is the watchword of the telecommunications company.
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‘We have high customer satisfaction and serve our customers easily. And if you do, you incur less error costs and need fewer people. We also hire 2,500 people a day, we still have 10,000 people around, so we can become much more efficient.’
Meanwhile, KPN is also rolling out its fiber optic network in the Netherlands, according to Farwerck “a train that’s running and continuing this quarter.” I think 115,000 connections. And we are on track to supply 80% of the Netherlands with fiber.
Eredivisie broadcasting rights
KPN and other telecom providers such as VodafoneZiggo, T-Mobile and Delta have bid for the broadcasting rights to the Eredivisie. KPN CEO Joost Farwerck confirmed this Wednesday in an explanation of his company’s quarterly data. “Disney makes a lot of money out of it, so we thought, let’s try it a different way.” According to Farwerck, the telecommunications companies’ offer could generate more money for football clubs.
“We already offer sports and that’s an expensive business,” Farwerck explains. “Disney, which owns ESPN, makes a good profit, and we can’t pass all the costs on to customers.” This is why the telecom companies saw an opportunity to make a joint offer.
According to reports from De Telegraaf, they would like to pay 2 billion euros for ten years of broadcasting rights from 2025. ESPN, which already owns the rights, previously reportedly made an offer of around 1.5 billion euros. KPN’s CEO declined to comment on the amount of the offer. Farwerck points out that it is an “occasional consortium”.