Virgin Media, the UK cable operator, has successfully arrested the decline in its subscriber base and reported a return to growth, albeit a marginal one, with a net increase of 13,000 customers in the third quarter. Under acting chief executive Neil Berkett the company has refo-cused energies on broadband, to take advantage of its "superior" cable network, and on mobile telephony, which he said had not been fully exploited (NMM September 28, 2007). The change of focus is reflected in the numbers for the three months ending September 30, with 122,900 new broadband sub- scribers, more than double the 50,500 additions of the previous quarter, and 15,900 new mobile customers, far better than the loss of 46,500 in the three months to June 30. The overall customer growth compared with a second-quarter loss of 70,300 customers, of which 40,000 were blamed on the company's basic channels dispute with BSkyB. Virgin Media reported success in "up-selling" customers, increasing triple-play penetration to 47 per cent, up from 45.2 per cent three months earlier and 38.7 per cent a year ago. This reflected the company's "drive to encourage bundling". But average revenue per user (ARPU) was down from ￡42.16 to ￡41.55 in the quarter.
展开▼
