Digital TV update - Q2 2010
Cable
3.14 Virgin Media's Q2 results included net additions of 22,300 television subscribers (following 35,700 additions in Q1 2010). Allowing for the migration of analogue subscribers to digital cable, 25,900 digital TV subscribers were added in Q2.
3.15 Virgin Media has added 129,200 net new television homes over the past year. There are now over 3.7 million TV subscribers, the highest level of take-up for cable television to date. Virgin Media's combined annualised ARPU reached a new high of £550 in Q2 2010; an increase of over £31 year on year and up by over £10 in the quarter. Customer churn increased in Q2 to 15.6% from 13.2% in Q1, but was stable year on year.
3.16 Virgin Media now carries 26 HD channels, following the launch of Sky Sports 1 and 2 HD and ten Sky Movies HD channels in August 2010. Almost a third (32%) of the company's TV subscribers now use the V+ HD DVR (1,198,900 subscribers). Virgin also now provides a standard V HD-ready set-top box, enabling customers to access HD services for no additional monthly fee.
3.17 The number of Virgin Media customers taking three or more communications services reached 62.4% during Q2, up 4.1pp from 58.3% a year before (Q2 2009). The proportion of 'quad-play' customers reached 11.3% by Q2 2010.
3.18 Virgin Media reported that over half (58%) of its digital customer base (around 2.1 million TV customers) were using its video-on-demand (VoD) service on a monthly basis in Q2; this was up by over 200,000 in a year.
Chart
