Virgin Media stems the tide of customer losses

LONDON - Virgin Media has reduced its losses and added 13,000 more customers, according to its latest results for the third quarter of 2007, but it still suffered a £61m loss.

The results show that the four-play operator appears to have halted the slump in customers highlighted in its second-quarter results, which showed a drop of 70,300 from the first quarter.

According to the latest figures for the quarter ending September 30, 2007, the company now has 4.737m customers, 13,000 more than the previous quarter on a net basis.

In addition, Virgin Media's net losses have been significantly reduced -- from the three months to the end of September the losses, were £61m, compared with £96m a year ago. The figures also show the firm has an operating profit of £46.7m, compared with an operating loss of £9.6m at the end of the third quarter in 2006.

The results follow a tough year for Virgin Media, which was created in February this year following a merger between cable TV operators Telewest and NTL and Virgin Mobile, but has since been embroiled in a dispute with BSkyB over content pricing.

The dispute has led to the withdrawal of BSkyB channels Sky News and Sky One from Virgin's cable TV service, including programmes such as 'Battlestar Galactica', '24' and 'Lost'.

Neil Berkett, who took over as acting chief executive officer at Virgin Media in August following the resignation of CEO Steve Burch, said the results were a "significant turnaround" in customer growth.

It is also hoped that further customers will be attracted with the launch of a superfast broadband services, that is currently being trialled.

The firm already offers speeds of up to 20 megabits per second and has now successfully tested a 50 meg speed service. Other extra services are also expected to include HDTV on demand.

Earlier this month, BSkyB announced a boost in customer numbers, adding 83,000 in the third quarter of 2007.

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