Virgin Media continues cable turnaround

摘要

Virgin Media took another step on the road to turning around its cable business in the fourth quarter of 2007, reporting its best operational performance since NTL and Telewest merged at the beginning of 2006. The company reported a net 61,000 new television customers for the three months ending December 31, compared to 20,000 in the previous quarter. "We're not only delivering major milestones strategically but also delivering on the numbers," said acting chief executive Neil Berkett. But he warned that this level of growth would not be repeated in the first quarter of 2008. The company increased triple-play penetration to 49.5 per cent, up 2.5 percentage points quarter-on-quarter. It is offering customers faster broadband packages at the same price as their existing subscriptions, raising the risk that customers might trade down. Berkett said the company had minimised this risk. "Providing that the differential is big enough you won't get that customer spin-down," Berkett told analysts. "We're in the process of upgrading [broadband customers] from 4Mbit/sec to 10Mbit/sec and the feedback we're getting is very positive." Virgin Media added 111,200 new broadband customers, down from 122,900 in the third quarter, to reach 3.7 million. The company said this represented 18 per cent of new UK broadband additions and about 40 per cent in its cable areas.