Unveiling its Q4 2008 results today (25 February), Virgin Media said revenue at its content arm, which houses Virgin Media TV, its 50% share in UKTV, plus shopping broadcaster Sit Up TV, were £118.8m, up from £114.1m a year earlier.
Revenues from VMtv were £34.2m, up from £27.3m in Q4 2007, and £84.6m at Sit Up TV, down from £86.8m a year earlier.
VMtv revenue was up compared to the same quarter last year, Virgin said, due to increased advertising revenue and increased subscription revenue. Subscription revenue increased due to a new carriage agreement with BSkyB for continued and extended carriage of its VMtv channels on the satellite platform.
As a result of the loss of Sit Up's second Freeview channel last year and what it termed "the deterioration in the outlook for Sit up's business", Virgin said it was "reviewing the implications of these developments on Sit up's business model and considering how best to address them".
Meanwhile, Virgin Media generated revenue of £4.3m from UKTV in Q4 2008, up from just £0.3m in Q4 2007. It did not break out any further details of UKTV's performance, such as ad revenue or pre-tax profits.
Within the cable TV side of the business, Virgin Media added 44,500 net pay-TV additions in the quarter, down from 61,100 a year earlier. Virgin flagged up the rising usage of its VoD services. On a monthly basis, it said 1.8 million of its digital TV customers were now using VoD, representing a reach of 51.8%. Average views per user per month in the quarter were 29.7, compared to 22 a year ago.
During the quarter, it added 52,800 DVR subscribers to reach an installed base of 521,500.
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