Unveiling its Q1 results, Virgin Media said it ended the period with 3.65 million TV subscribers. It also flagged up the growing use of its VoD services.
On a monthly average basis, 1.9 million of its digital TV customers now use VoD, representing a reach of 53%. Average views per user per month in the quarter were 29 compared to 24 a year ago. Average monthly views were 55 million in the quarter, up 4% on the previous quarter and up 51% on the same quarter last year.
For reporting purposes, its content operations now include only VMtv, operator of channels such as Virgin1 and Living, following the sale of its TV shopping arm in April.
Virgin Media said content revenue was £32.6m, with the company partly attributing the rise due to increased subscription revenue, partially offset by reduced ad revenue. It did not detail these subscription or ad revenues.
Virgin Media owns 50% of UKTV and it said it recognised a share of UKTV's pre-tax profits of £3.7m in the quarter, compared with £6.2m a year earlier.
UKTV's financial results are not consolidated in Virgin Media's report.
Virgin Media added that its outstanding loans to UKTV, which help finance the broadcaster, stood at £138m as at March 31.
Group-wide, including its cable operation and content, total revenue in the first quarter was £935.7m, down from £947.3m in Q1.
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