News
Cable group reports strong additions of next-generation video customers.
Liberty Global announced on Friday its European business swung to a third quarter net loss, despite strong additions of next-generation video subscribers.
The U.S.-based cable group’s European arm, called Liberty Global Group, generated revenue of $4.31 billion (€3.88 billion) in the three months ended 30 September, up from $4.29 billion a year earlier. The growth was led by Germany, which grew revenues to $639.4 million from $603.5 million last year, and Belgium, where revenue surged to $693.4 million from $512.5 million.
Operating income surged 60% year-on-year to $764 million, driven by lower depreciation and amortisation costs, and a decrease in share-based compensation expenses.
"With respect to top-line drivers, our YTD subscriber additions in Europe
were up nearly 50%, while customer ARPU in Q3 increased 3% year-over-year. This growth was due
in part to our success with quad-play offers and our advanced video and OTT services," explained Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries, in a statement.
Indeed, the company recorded net additions of 257,000 revenue-generating units (RGUs) in Europe during the third quarter. Its next-generation video subscriber base surged by 278,000.
"Over 7.4 million subscribers, or 38% of our total video base, subscriber to one of our innovative next-generation TV platforms as of September 30, 2016, a substantial increase as compared to 6.2 million, or 31% at the end of Q3 last year," Liberty Global said.
Liberty Global Group ended September with 25.76 million individual customers and 54.14 million RGUs. A year earlier, those figures stood at 25.75 million and 53.17 million respectively.
Meanwhile, at Liberty’s Latin American business, LiLAC, revenue increased to $5.21 billion from $4.6 billion. The growth came from the contribution of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC); Liberty Global completed the acquisition of CWC in May.
LiLAC’s subscriber base increased to 2.94 million individual customers and 5.43 million RGUs from 1.66 million customers and 3.49 million RGUs a year earlier.
