Virgin Media has reported its best quarter in terms of subscriber numbers since the company was formed from the merger of NTL and Telewest. The cablenet reported a significant improvement in both customer and RGU growth with the addition of 272,100 so-called Revenue Generating Units in the 4th quarter. The 24,400 net customer additions were almost double the 13,000 added in the 3rd quarter of 2007. There was an 111,2000 net growth in broadband additions and 61,000 net TV additions.
The telephony service fell back in the first half of the year until a rally in the second half improved numbers on the year as a whole.
Triple play penetration is now at a record 49.5%, up from 47% in Q3.
However, while subscriber numbers climbed, Virgin found itself back in the red to the tune of £17.8 million, from £46.7 million in the third quarter of 2007, though the £9.2 million profit of Q4 2006 may be a better comparison due to last quarter’s extraordinary items. The net annual loss was £163.2 million pounds compared with a loss of £122.1 million in 2006.
Virgin’s on demand service is now used by 1.5 million customers on a monthly basis, representing a reach of 47%. Average views per month in the fourth quarter were 23 compared to 10 at the start of 2007.
The V+ digital video recorder added an additional 72,200 subscribers on the quarter to reach an installed base of 262,400, some 8% of the installed base of 3,478,000.
