Virgin Media beats profit expectations
August 8, 2008
Virgin Media, which has Britain's highest broadband speeds and reaches more homes than its rivals, said it lost 19,500 net customers in the normally weak second quarter, taking the total of residential customers on its cable network to 4.74 million.
Underlying operating profit rose 6 per cent to £333 million thanks to incremental cost cuts and efficiency measures Sales slipped slightly to £990.5 million from £995 million, broadly in line with expectations, and average revenue per user fell to £41.63 per cable customer per month from £42.16.
Virgin Media, said it aimed to continue to reduce churn after it fell to 1.3 per cent from 1.8 per cent a year earlier. The company is gradually shrugging off a reputation for poor customer service. More important than increasing overall customer numbers was encouraging them to sign up for more expensive services, Virgin Media said. It increased triple-play customers – those who sign up for cable, phone and broadband – to a record 53 per cent.
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