Virgin Media’s premium subscribers make up for customer losses

Virgin Media has reported an increase in revenues for the second quarter of the year as it continues to improve the mix of higher value customers paying for premium services. Second quarter revenues were £985.8 million (€1.1 billion), up 2.2% on the £964.2 million reported a year earlier. Operating income was £134.9, up from £79.6.

Despite losing 36,000 cable subscribers during the quarter, the cable operator pointed out that ARPU amongst these churning customers was 16% lower than the average.

Virgin Media said half of new broadband customers are taking 30Mbps services or higher, compared to 18% a year ago taking 20Mbps or above. The total broadband subscriber base stood at 4.3 million, up from 4.2 million a year earlier. Triple-play penetration has increased to 63.8% and quad-play penetration stands at 12.6%. Cable ARPU is up 3.2% to £47.35.

The operator’s new next generation DVR platform powered by TiVo had attracted 50,000 customers by July 26. Virgin Media ended June with about 3.8 million TV customers, of which 1.7 million or 45% can view HD services after the operator signed up an additional 131,000 HD customers. Virgin Media said about 65% of its TV base regularly used its on demand service during the quarter, averaging 78 million views each month, which is an increase of 15% from the same period in 2010.