Virgin Media Q4 and full year 2011 statement

The highlights:

• Revenue up 3.0% to £4.0bn for the year
• Revenue up 2.0% to £1.0bn for the quarter*
• Strong TiVo and superfast broadband growth 
• TiVo customer base more than doubled in Q4 with 273,000 net additions
• 435,000 TiVo customers at the year-end; 12% of the TV base
• 56,100 increase in the paying TV base for the quarter
• Strong demand for superfast broadband (30Mb and above) in Q4 with 133,000 customer growth
• Net cable customer additions of 15,000 in Q4
• Cable ARPU, up 0.7% to £47.85 versus a strong comparison quarter

Neil Berkett, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media, said: 'In a fast-changing industry and an uncertain economic environment, our 2011 results demonstrate the underlying resilience of Virgin Media's business model, with modest revenue growth driving robust OCF and record free cash flow. Our strategy of focusing on customers who want more from the digital world is paying off. With the number of TiVo customers doubling in the final quarter of the year, our new TiVo service is attracting both new and existing customers. Since its commercial launch mid-way through the year, the number of TiVo subscribers has grown to almost half a million with a large and growing proportion now using its next generation functionality on a regular basis. Demand for better broadband also continues to grow fast, with around half of new customers choosing superfast speeds. The combination of the best TV experience and the best broadband, has enabled us to acquire more new customers in the quarter. Our confidence in the growing mainstream demand for next generation digital services has recently led us to announce the roll-out of an ambitious programme to double the broadband speeds of over four million customers. This marks a step change in the migration to superfast speeds and, combined with the continued evolution of TiVo, further differentiates the Virgin Media customer experience. We are also making strong progress in other areas. We are successfully building contract mobile sales into cable homes and Virgin Media Business ended the year strongly as an increasingly important and growing contributor to the group.'
MediaGuardian comment: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/08/virgin-media-posts-first-ever-profit.
Telegraph comment: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9068488/Virgin-Media-deliver-first-annual-profits.html
BBC News comment:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16941543
Sky News comment:
...er, can't find it on the Sky News site. But it is really, really cold apparently...

In summary:  a better-than-anticipated set of results, resulting in a profit for the first time in the UK cable industry.