Virgin Media stems subscriber losses

UK quad play operator Virgin Media was upbeat on Wednesday after releasing a financial report that showed it had reigned in customer departures following its public spat with Sky over content rights.

Virgin recorded a return to customer growth during the third quarter, reporting 13,000 net additions to its cable network as churn reduced slightly from 1.8 per cent in the previous quarter to 1.7 per cent.

The on net customer base hit 4.8 million at the end of September, with 47 per cent of the user base on triple play bundles, compared to 38.7 per cent a year ago.

With acting chief executive officer, Neil Berkett, at the helm, Virgin has beefed up its TV offering with the inclusion of six Setanta Sports channels for no additional charge and has refocused its offerings around higher speed broadband, compared to DSL.

The company recently completed an upgrade of its network to support 20Mbps broadband and has moved to the next stage of its 50Mbps trial.

Virgin Mobile reported net additions of 15,900, compared to a loss of 46,500 in the second quarter. Contract customers increased by 29,700, based largely on the cross sell to cable customers, while the number of prepay customers fell 13,800, compared to a second quarter loss of 99,300.

Group revenues were flat year on year at £1bn, while operating profit hit £46.7m, compared to a loss of £9.6m a year ago.