Western Europe boosts Liberty revenue and cash flow

Strong revenue growth in western Europe helped boost cable group Liberty Global’s third-quarter performance, with the group posting revenues of US$2.25 billion (€1.6 billion), representing rebased growth of 6% year-on-year.

Liberty Global’s operating cash flow was also boosted especially by the acquisition of German operator Unitymedia. The group had cash flow of US$1.08 billion for the quarter, representing growth of 8%.

The cable operator added 167,000 organic net revenue-generating units in the quarter, ending September with 27.5 million RGUs. This comprised 16.8 million TV subscribers (including 6.5 million digital cable subscribers), 6.2 million broadband subscribers and 4.5 million telephony subscribers. For the third quarter, the company added 147,000 broadband and 110,000 telephony subs but lost 90,000 TV subscribers through analogue attrition (although it added 254,000 digital TV customers in the same period).

Liberty said that 35% of its 17.7 million customers took more than one service at the end of the period, with triple-play penetration growing by 46% year-on-year. The operator added 200,000 HD customers in the period, and HD DVR penetration now stands at about 40% of its digital base.