Virgin Media revenue up 3.6% in first quarter, surpassing £1 billion

Virgin Media has released its first quarterly report for 2013, revealing a 3.6% revenue growth that has surpassed £1 billion.

The media giant, which is currently being acquired by US firm Liberty Global in a deal worth £15 billion, reached revenue of £1.04 billion in the first three months of 2013, with pre-tax profits of £161.6 million – more than 20 times the profit in the same period of 2012.

There were 8,600 net cable customer additions in Q1, down from 21,200 on the previous year, however churn declined marginally from 1.2% to 1.1% during the quarter – the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year improvement.

Both Virgin Media’s TiVo and superfast broadband offer increased over the quarter, with TiVo reaching 1.5 million – 40% of Virgin Media’s TV custom – and superfast broadband increasing to 2.5 million customers, up by almost 400,000.

Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media said: “We have had a good start to the year with accelerated revenue growth, improved churn, and strong free cash flow growth.

“The great value we provide through our Collections packages, which bundle superfast broadband and our next generation TiVo service, has seen new customers join and our existing customers stay loyal to us. This positive momentum in the business positions us well for our planned merger with Liberty Global.”