Advanced Television

Liberty Global posts $700m profits, Horizon next month

August 3, 2012

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries

Liberty Global, the international cable TV company controlled by John Malone, posted $706.8 million in second-quarter earnings, reversing losses it posted in the quarter a year ago.

Liberty Global, which operates cable TV and broadband systems in Europe and Latin America, earned the $706.8 million on second-quarter revenue of $2.5 billion. That compares to a $347 million loss on revenue of $2.4 billion in the second quarter of 2011.

The company’s second-quarter revenue declined in every European market year-over-year, except in Germany. There, Liberty Global’s second-quarter revenue rose 57 per cent, from $360 million in 2011 to $566 million in 2012, the company said. The jump was driven the Liberty Global’s $4.1 billion deal in December buying Germany’s third-largest cable TV system, Kabel Baden-Wurttemberg (KBW).

Liberty lost 83,000 video customers during the second quarter, similar to the level of losses last year. Digital cable growth year-on-year increased by 13 per cent, with 244,000 additions over the quarter. Some 49 per cent of he company’s video customers are now digital. Liberty also added 208,000 broadband RGUs over the quarter.

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries has confirmed that the group will launch its much delayed ‘next generation’ Horizon STB in the Netherlands next month. He added the device will also be rolled out in Switzerland some time in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Speaking at ANGA Cable in June 2012, Fries had suggested the Swiss launch would be Q1 2013, with the German market to follow in the first quarter of 2013.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, Cable, Results, STB