Broadband, telephone services boost Virgin Media customers

Subscriber numbers at Virgin Media’s Irish operation remained flat in the final quarter of 2015 as a rise in broadband and telephone customers was offset by a decline in the number of people signing up for digital TV.

Virgin Media Ireland, formerly UPC, had just under 1.1 million customers for its phone, TV, broadband and mobile services at the end of the year.

That included 311,200 digital TV subscribers at the end of December, down 7,200 quarter on quarter. At the end of the previous year, the company had 333,200 digital TV subscribers.

But broadband subscriptions rose from 363,400 to 371,200 over the year, while customers availing of the company’s telephone services rose from 344,300 to 358,100. During the period, Virgin Media began offering a mobile phone service to existing customers, a service that attracted 7,600 customers by the end of the year. That was an increase of 6,500 over the three-month period.

"2015 has been a year of continued investment in our network and products creating a platform for further growth and innovation in the year ahead," Virgin Media chief financial officer Carol Grennan said.

Virgin recently announced it was boosting broadband services it offered to for customers to a top speed of 360Mbit/sec.

Revenues at Virgin Media’s business division also performed strongly, rising 21 per cent year on year. The company announced it would buy Bitbuzz at at the end of 2014, and said the unit exceeded revenue expectations throughout 2015. Meanwhile, its recently introduced online shopping service for B2B products contributed 23 per cent year on year growth in sales in its SME unit.

UPC rebranded as Virgin Media in October, appointing former O2 Ireland's Tony Hanway as chief executive in November. The company also bought commercial broadcaster TV3 last summer.