UPC Ireland has confirmed plans to transition to the Virgin Media brand.
It’s the latest stage of a reorganisation that began in December 2014 when UPC Ireland became part of Liberty Global’s UK subsidiary, Virgin Media, in December 2014. Liberty Global bought Virgin Media UK in 2013.
Magnus Ternsjö, CEO of UPC Ireland, said: “Introducing the Virgin Media brand to Ireland is a big investment in our business and our future. In almost every corner of the world, the Virgin brand is famous for its entrepreneurial spirit in delivering more for customers, which is exactly what we’re going to do by building even further on all our innovation and achievements to date.”
Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media Chief Executive Officer, added: “Everyone at Liberty Global is immensely proud of what the team at UPC Ireland has achieved, particularly the significant growth the business has delivered. Now, it’s a time for a step-change. We have some exciting plans in the pipeline to step up competition for consumers which we will announce in due course.”
A key difference of between UK and Ireland is that while Virgin Media in the UK runs the TiVo platform, UPC Ireland has stuck with the Horizon system offered by UPC in continental Europe.
As of June 30, 2015 UPC Ireland held 1.1 million service subscribers (RGUs) represented by 505,000 customers. Its UK counterpart has 5 million customers.