Credit: Richard Kendal/RTS
As the cablenet has withdrawn from parts of Europe, Liberty Global’s UK operations have become increasingly significant, with the company holding half of Virgin Media O2, half of All3Media, 10% in ITV and 5% in Vodafone.
Consequently, the chief executive of Liberty Global, Mike Fries, has confirmed he is now a UK resident.
“We’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve been living on an airplane pretty much that entire time,” Fries told the RTS Cambridge convention. “We’ve invested in 50 countries around the world. But Europe has always been one of our biggest markets. And we’ve been in as many as 20 countries in Europe. And of course recently we scaled that back and really doubled down on mobile and national scale.
“The UK is, you know, for sure our biggest and most important market,” Fries told the RTS Cambridge convention. “So it seemed like the right time I’ve got four of my core reports here in the office. We’ve had an office here for 25 years. And to be honest, it’s a great time for my family. I lived abroad once before, my two older daughters, I have my three and a half year old son and my wife, and it has been a seamless transition, except for the driving, I have to be honest.”
Fries admitted the Fries was a smaller part of Virgin Media O2, representing just 15% of its 11 billion of revenue. “But it’s an important piece because we know that if we didn’t provide a video service, 40% of our customers would leave us because that broadband and video connection is really powerful.” He said Virgin Media’s Stream product was an important part of its offer and admitted to having eight such devices in his new home.
Liberty Global has placed its stake in All3Media on the market with Fries telling delegates that the producer of Traitors, Midsomer Murders and Call the Midwife that the sale could be a “catalyst for consolidation”. ITV, which has bought a string of independent production companies in recent years, has been linked with a bid for the production company that Liberty owns with Warner Bros. Discovery.”
“It’s not quite as strategic to us as it might be to Warner Bros. Discovery, but they’re in their own situation, as you well know,” said Fries.
Looking to the future, Fries said consumers wanted more content, virtual reality, interactivity and connectivity. “[It’s] a good place for all of us to be because I don’t think it’s a product and an industry and an ecosystem that every year consumes more. I can’t say that about every industry. And so I think that’s a big positive. I think social media, which is going to state the obvious almost, TikTok, YouTube, these platforms will be disruptive.”
Asked if his focus was more on content or infrastructure, Fries responded by saying Virgin’s fibre investment would give “BT a run like you’ve never seen”.
