Virgin Media’s deployment of the TiVo next generation TV product has helped drive revenues at the UK cablenet ahead of the proposed acquisition by Liberty Global.
The UK cablenet’s new Collections product strategy that includes TiVo, HD and superfast broadband as standard helped increase cable revenues by 3% to £2.8 billion.
Liberty Global had studied TiVo to rollout across the UPC network, but opted for its own Horizon platform. TiVo is now firmly entrenched in the UK market and has been given the backing of Liberty Global president Mike Fries.
Neil Berkett, the Virgin Media CEO who intends to step down after the acquisition, said: “2012 was a year of record cable customer growth, where mainstream demand for superfast broadband and TiVo has led to lower churn and a strong increase in new subscribers. Combined with growth in our business division, we have delivered solid financial progress.”
Berkett intends to stay on as an advisor to the company.
An additional 896,900 TiVo customers were added in 2012, including 187,300 in the fourth quarter to reach a total of 1.33m or 35% of the TV customer base.
The overall number of paying TV customers increased by 210,000 in the year, including 59,900 in the final quarter.
The number of customers on superfast speeds (30 Mbps and above) increased by 1.5m, including 419,400 during the last quarter, taking the total to 2.176m or 51% of the broadband base.
