TV becoming less important for Liberty Global

Broadband and telephony, not TV, are the growth drivers for cable operator Liberty Global according to Niall Curran, chief operating officer of Liberty Global International’s (LGI) content arm Chellomedia.

Speaking at Informa Media & Telecoms’ Digital TV World Summit in London, Curran explained that as Liberty has evolved from a provider of analogue video services to a triple or quad-play provider, revenues from broadband and telephony have started growing faster than TV. “Telephony and broadband are taking a larger part of the pie,” he said. “The growth is largely coming from broadband and telephony.”

In 2005, video generated 72% of LGI revenues compared to 17% and 11% from broadband and telephony respectively. Last year TV’s share had fallen to 59% with broadband at 23% and telephony 18%.

Curran also warned that cable and satellite pay-TV providers need to be increasingly aware of competition from digital terrestrial services. “Between various pay TV providers we could let DTT take market share that would be hard to pull back,” he said.