Virgin Could Shed Another 60,000 Subscribers

Virgin Media could reveal it has shed 60,000 subscribers during the second quarter of 2007, in its results presentation due on Wednesday.

The Mail On Sunday claims 40,000 of the subscribers made the decision to leave the service because they were no longer able to get some Sky channels on Virgin’s cable TV service. The remainder were fixed-line phone customers.

BSkyB pulled its Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports News channels from Virgin at the beginning of March after the two failed to agree a new carriage deal. The loss of Sky One denied Virgin customers top rating shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Lost and 24, and Virgin has now taken Sky to court (see Virgin Media And Sky: The Story So Far).

In May, Virgin’s Q1 results showed the company’s customer base dropped to 4.81 million, with a net loss of 46,900 subscribers (see Virgin Media Subscriptions Decline). Meanwhile, BSkyB’s full year revenue increased by 10% to £4.5 million, with the broadcaster adding a net 406,000 new subscribers to reach 8.58 million (see BSkyB Revenues Increase).

Virgin is currently up for sale with an £11 billion price tag. Initial offers for the company are due in this week (see Media In The City: Dow Jones Negotiations Near End).

Virgin has recently made efforts to replace the channels it lost from Sky, creating a Sky One rival in Virgin 1 (see Virgin Media TV To Launch New Channel), and a sports news channel with Setanta to replace Sky Sports News (see Setanta To Launch Sports News Channel).

Virgin Media: www.virginmedia.com