Nearly one in four (23%) of Liberty Global’s digital subscribers opted for TiVo or Horizon TV as of the end of the third quarter.
In its latest set of results, the company says that it added 261,000 next-generation video subscribers in Q3, increasing its TiVo subscriber base to 2.3 million in the UK and its Horizon TV base to 770,000 in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Ireland.
The UK stood out as one of Liberty’s best performing markets in the third quarter, gaining 77,000 RGUs, compared to a loss of 7,000 in the same period last year.
This was in large part driven by the attractiveness of its new “Big Bundles” product, helping the UK to contribute to an overall gain of 262,000 RGUs in Western Europe. This compared to 57,000 in CEE, itself 16% up on a year earlier.
The UK also performed well in video RGUs, its gain of 5,000 in Q3 contrasting with a loss of 13,000 a year earlier.
In CEE, Liberty’s DTH operations gained subscribers in both Hungary (+3,300) and the Czech Republic (+2,100) in Q3. However, this was offset by losses in both Romania (-800) and Slovakia (-800).
Liberty’s revenues in Q3 amounted to $4.5 billion up 5% year-on-year.
The inclusion of the UK’s Virgin Media was a main driver for growth in the period. Western Europe accounted for over 85% of consolidated revenue in Q3 (+3% rebased growth for the quarter), while CEE had 2% rebased growth, helped principally by Romania and Poland.
Belgium (6%) and Germany (5%) saw strong growth in the third quarter, with Switzerland and the UK posting 4% and 25 respectively.
Liberty’s net earnings in Q3 amounted to $157 million, compared to a net loss of $830 million a year earlier.
Commenting on the results, CEO Mike Fries said: “We continue leveraging the scale of our core distribution platform and the substantial investments we’re making to bring innovative products to market. As a result, our third quarter results were driven in large part by record volume growth, underpinned by strong consumer demand for our next-generation video platforms, our market-leading broadband speeds, and our increasingly converged products that provide our customers with connectivity and entertainment outside of the home. These robust subscriber gains helped us deliver a 6% increase inrebased OCF to $6.4 billion YTD and a 45% rise in Adjusted Free Cash Flow to $1.4 billion on a combined basis.”
