Liberty Global saw record subscriber growth in the third quarter, with its European operations accounting for 90% of net additions.
Subscriber additions were more than double those in Q3 2010, with operations in Western Europe and CEE adding more than 70,000 RGUs each in the third quarter this year.
Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands were the strongest performers year-on-year in Western Europe, while Romania, Hungary and Poland helped CEE deliver its best quarter of 2011.
The latest set of results published by the company show that within its UPC Broadband Division Germany was by far the largest digital cable market, with 1,688,700 subscribers as of September 30.
It also gained the most digital cable subscribers in the quarter (55,400), though at the same time gained lost 62,500 analogue cable customers. Within Western Europe, only Switzerland (+4,000) had a net gain of cable subscribers in the quarter, with the Netherlands, Austria and Ireland all seeing a net reduction.
In CEE, the incorporation of Aster into UPC Polska’s operations had a huge effect on the overall figures.
Poland is now the third largest digital cable market in the division after Germany and the Netherlands, ending Q3 with 584,600 subscribers.
Its cable subscriber total grew by 348,100 in the quarter.
Meanwhile in the DTH sector, only Romania’s Focus Sat saw strong growth in Q3, adding 13,500 subscribers and taking the total to 255,500.
UPC Direct, which operates in Hungary, gained 6,800 in the quarter, while freeSAT added 400 in the Czech Republic and 1,600 in Slovakia.
