Unitymedia continues to be the jewel of the Liberty Global crown. The German operation added 157,200 new subscription items (RGUs), the 9th successive quarter when more than 150,000 units were added.
The demand has been led by a strong consumer demand for broadband bundles with to internet and telephony RGU growth of 94,500 and 88,600, respectively.
Digital cable subscriptions grew by 12% to 2,148,800 out of a total video base of 6,713,700.
As of September 30, 2012, 7 million customers were served in the German states of North-Rhine Westphalia and Hessen.
Net loss improved to €51 million in Q3 2012 versus €65 million in Q3 2011.
From January 1, 2013 Unitymedia is moving to the Kabel BW practice of offering an unencrypted basic digital video signal and will then only count those subscribers as digital who pay a monthly recurring fee to subscribe to premium digital services that require a smart card.
Liberty’s operations in Austria and Switzerland already have plans to offer their customers this ‘free’ digital basic service.
