Quarterly revenue at Virgin Media Ireland rises 2% to €100m

Revenue at Virgin Media Ireland rose 2 per cent in the second quarter of the year, increasing to €100 million.

The company, which rebranded to Virgin Media from UPC late last year, said it expected the growth in its mobile customers to pick up pace in the second half of the year, and continued to expand its high-speed broadband, adding 13,000 new premises in 2016.

The company had a total of 364,200 broadband subscribers at the end of June, 3,500 fewer than at the end of the previous quarter, and 352,100 telephony services. Meanwhile, Virgin Media had a total of 323,300 television subscribers, some 9,300 fewer than at the end of March.

Mobile customers

Mobile figures for the company were relatively flat in the quarter ended June 30th, 2016, with the company signing up 11,800 mobile customers by the end of the second quarter. That was up from 10,500 in the first quarter of 2016.

Virgin Media Ireland's chief executive, Tony Hanway, wasn't giving away target figures for mobile customers, but he said he expected to gain a reasonable market share.

Virgin began offering mobile services to customers from October last year, under a mobile virtual network operator agreement with Three Ireland.

“The catalyst from here on in is our launch of devices and 4G, which we only did in the last two weeks. We’ve been a sim-only offering until now,” he said. “SIM-only was a good way to start but it’s really all about devices. We think customers, particularly our own customer base, will gravitate towards those plans.”

Market share

He predicted the company would see strong growth in mobile figures in its fourth quarter, and said it was currently making money in the sector.

“We hope to be able to capture a reasonable amount of market share over the next three to four years,” said Mr Hanway. “We’re realistic. It will be in the hundreds of thousands ultimately.”

Although Virgin Media remains on the lookout for good assets, there are no plans to buy any more firms.

Virgin Media Ireland agreed to buy UTV Ireland last month for €10 million, adding the station to its portfolio along with TV3. The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and Mr Hanway said the company was not making any assumptions about the outcome.

“We think it’s the right move for the industry and the right more for us,” he said.

Customers may also see more Virgin Media stores in their towns soon, although Mr Hanway ruled out a more extensive presence.

“I don’t think we’ll ever have an expansive retail network, that’s not what we’re about,” he said.

But more stores are planned, with further shops in Dublin, Cork and other areas of the country.

Liberty Global

Virgin Media Ireland is owned by the Liberty Global group, controlled by billionaire John Malone. It reported second-quarter sales that exceeded analysts' estimates, a day after European Union regulators cleared the cable company's Dutch joint venture with Vodafone Group. Revenue grew 5.1 per cent to $4.47 billion.

Liberty Global added 277,000 customers in the period, double the year-earlier gain, as it pushes into broadband and mobile-phone services.The green light from the EU lets Liberty and Vodafone move forward with a joint venture announced in February. – (Additional reporting: Bloomberg)