Posted: 08th Feb, 2012 By: MarkJ

Cable giant Virgin Media UK has just released their latest quarterly results to 31st December 2011, which saw their total broadband ISP subscriber base climb from 4,333,600 in Q3-2011 to
4,351,100 in Q4-2011 (+17,500 net adds).
The majority of Virgin Media's broadband customers (4,102,900) use their fast cable (
DOCSIS/
EuroDOCSIS) platform. Meanwhile their
Virgin National (
Virgin.net) / ADSL2+ based non-cable services saw another sharp quarterly decline to
248,200 (-12,500). That's a faster rate of loss than the -5,200 seen in Q3-2011.
Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media, said:
"In a fast-changing industry and an uncertain economic environment, our 2011 results demonstrate the underlying resilience of Virgin Media's business model, with modest revenue growth driving robust OCF and record free cash flow. Our next accelerated stock repurchase of $250 million shows our ability and commitment to translate the cash generative characteristics of our business into shareholder value.
Demand for better broadband also continues to grow fast, with around half of new customers choosing superfast speeds. The combination of the best TV experience and the best broadband, has enabled us to acquire more new customers in the quarter.
Our confidence in the growing mainstream demand for next generation digital services has recently led us to announce the roll-out of an ambitious programme to double the broadband speeds of over four million customers. This marks a step change in the migration to superfast speeds and, combined with the continued evolution of TiVo, further differentiates the Virgin Media customer experience."
Some 28% of Virgin's cable broadband base (
1.2 Million Homes) now take its
20Mbps or faster services and nearly 700,000 are making use of their
30Mbps or above deals. Meanwhile Virgin's top-tier
50Mbps and 100Mbps products are home to a combined total of "
nearly" 200,000 customers, which in reality hasn't changed much from the 187,000 they had in Q3.
Overall Virgin Media saw quarterly
revenue growth of 2.0% (down from 2.2% in Q3) to reach £1bn (the same as Q3), while their cable
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) remains largely unchanged at £47.85.