According to Virgin Media's third quarter results, out today, operating income doubled year on year to £101.7m in the three months to the end of September, from £51.1m in the third quarter of 2009.
Triple-play, those customers paying for phone, broadband and TV from Virgin Media, penetration increased to 62.7% and quad-play penetration (phone, mobile, broadband and TV) increased to 11.5%.
Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, said: "Our continued focus on exploiting our strategic advantages with the resulting multiple opportunities for revenue growth, as well as robust financial discipline has delivered another strong financial performance this quarter."
Net income during the three months to 30 September was £41.8m, up from a net loss of £60.1m in the third quarter of 2009.
Virgin Media has opened pre-registration for its 100Mb broadband service. It will go on sale from December. A spokesman said it would "propel the UK up the global broadband league table."
In response to Virgin Media's announcement David Cameron, the prime minister, said: "We want to see superfast broadband brought to people's homes and businesses right across the country and this exciting news takes us a step closer towards reaching that goal."
According to Virgin Media's results the company spent £36.2m on marketing, up from £33.9m in the three months to 30 September 2009 but down from £39.7m in the three months to 30 June 2010.
In the third quarter Virgin Media’s rival BSkyB spent £302m on marketing. Virgin Media attributed its competitors "significantly increased marketing activity" as responsible for churn increasing slightly to 1.6%.
However, it is not possible to make a like-for-like comparison as the two companies’ definition of marketing is different. BSkyB includes the cost of providing and installing dishes in addition to above and below the line spend.
For results purposes Virgin Media defines marketing as advertising, brand costs, agency fees, support and research, public relations and internal communications costs.
Virgin Media added 222,100 HD customers in the quarter bringing the number of HD customers to 1.4 million and a total HD penetration of 38%. Virgin Media now carries 28 HD channels, up from one just over a year ago.
Virgin also added over 100,000 Sky premium subscribers, including 52,000 customers who have subscribed to Sky Sports HD and/or Sky Movies HD since launch in August.
Virgin Media owns 50% of the companies that comprise UKTV, a group of joint ventures formed with BBC Worldwide. Net income from Virgin Media’s share of UKTV was £6.7m for the quarter.
In addition, Virgin Media received £2.6m in the form of loan capital repayments, and cash payments of £9.1m, consisting of dividends, interest payments and payments for consortium tax relief.
The sale of Virgin Media Television completed on 12 July 2010 and Virgin Media was paid an initial £105m by BSkyB on that date. Virgin Media said following regulatory clearance in September it received a further instalment of £55m.
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