Virgin Media subscriber numbers

Stoner

KildareP wrote:

I would suspect the digital TV numbers are more a reflection on the Virgin Media product than on Pay-TV as a whole. The Horizon platform is very unpleasant to use and full of "quirks".

I found it so difficult to move from them that I'm very reluctant to get involved with them again. I left because of the two price hikes, one was fair enough, but the "convenient" 28 day payments change , slipping in an extra bill a year did it for me.
I found sky much easier to deal with

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

Large drop in analogue and digital TV subscribers this quarter, no reason given in the press release for the reduction in numbers.

This from the Irish Times today

The number of television subscribers the group has continued to decline during the quarter, slipping to 273,800, down almost 19,000 versus the final three months of 2017.

Virgin stressed this figure includes a reclassification of 14,500 SME customers who were moved into the business segment in the company’s reporting.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/revenue-bounce-for-virgin-media-ireland-despite-dip-in-tv-subscribers-1.3489009

The thing I don't understand is where have these reclassified customers gone to in the reported figures when you consider they include both residential and commercial subscribers numbers in their description of Basic Video Subscribers (analogue) and Enhanced Video Subscribers (digital)?

Basic Video Subscriber: a home, residential multiple dwelling unit or commercial unit that receives our video service over our broadband network either via an analog video signal …

Enhanced Video Subscriber: a home, residential multiple dwelling unit or commercial unit that receives our video service over our broadband network …

JTMan

The Cush wrote: »

This from the Irish Times today



The thing I don't understand is where have these reclassified customers gone to in the reported figures when you consider they include both residential and commercial subscribers numbers in their description of Basic Video Subscribers (analogue) and Enhanced Video Subscribers (digital)?

Yeah, the excuses that Virgin are giving make no sense in the context of the definition being inclusive of business customers and the also in the context of the significant drop in analogue subscribers.

mikeym

Would Virgin Media look into expanding their cable network?

Or is it to expensive?

JTMan

Virgin are currently expanding the areas that they cover.

Wabbit Ears

mikeym wrote: »

Would Virgin Media look into expanding their cable network?

Or is it to expensive?

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/companies/virgin-media-q1-project-lightning

The Cush

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q2 2018 numbers published (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LG-Q2-2018-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 270,800 (-3,000)
--- Analogue Cable - 10,700 (-3,000)
--- Digital Cable - 260,100 (n/c)
Internet - 371,100 (-1,500)
Telephone - 352,500 (-2,800)

Total Subscribers - 994,400 (-7,300)
Premises - 435,100 (-3,100)

Mobile Subscribers - 64,200 (+4,300)

mackersdublin

Q1 2018 had Analogue Cable - 13,700

Can't believe there's nearly 11,000 (Q2) stil on Analogue TV with all the recent switch offs this year

JTMan

The Cush wrote: »

Video Subscribers - 270,800 (-3,000)
--- Analogue Cable - 10,700 (-3,000)
--- Digital Cable - 260,100 (n/c)
Internet - 371,100 (-1,500)
Telephone - 352,500 (-2,800)

Total Subscribers - 994,400 (-7,300)
Premises - 435,100 (-3,100)

Mobile Subscribers - 64,200 (+4,300)

I guess the cause of the trends are ...
TV subs continue their downward trend and streaming continues to eat into linear TV viewing.
Internet subs down due to more competition.
Landline subs down parts part due to less forced bundling.
Mobile subs up due to promo offers.

Overall another poor set of results by Virgin.

dubrov

I'm amazed that their mobile subs have held up. Their promotion started well over a year ago and only lasts for 5 months. I would've expected their subscribers to be falling dramatically by now

patrickc

dubrov wrote: »

I'm amazed that their mobile subs have held up. Their promotion started well over a year ago and only lasts for 5 months. I would've expected their subscribers to be falling dramatically by now

they have run the fiver offer a few times, I got it in January and moved off in June

KildareP

The Cush wrote: »

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q2 2018 numbers published (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/LG-Q2-2018-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 270,800 (-3,000)
--- Analogue Cable - 10,700 (-3,000)
--- Digital Cable - 260,100 (n/c)
Internet - 371,100 (-1,500)
Telephone - 352,500 (-2,800)

Total Subscribers - 994,400 (-7,300)
Premises - 435,100 (-3,100)

Mobile Subscribers - 64,200 (+4,300)

It's not great reading and it doesn't get much better if we compare the 2015q2 results from 3 years ago (just before the UPC brand was retired) against the 2018q2:
TV: 379,300 vs 270,800 (-108,500)
Broadband: 367,300 vs 371,100 (+3,800)
Telephone: 352,400 vs 352,500 (+100)

Total subs: 1,099,000 vs 994,400 (-104,600)
Total Premises: 853,100 vs 903,500 (+50,400)

- TV has consistently seen heavy losses in subscriber numbers, despite both Eir and Vodafone showing healthy growth on their respective TV product and Sky TV subscriber numbers at record highs. I can't imagine the loss of Eir Sport along with the dreadful Horizon offering helped. And the 2018q2 figures don't fully include the impact of the ongoing analogue switchoff and the recent loss of the UKTV channels so I imagine the next few quarters aren't going to be pretty reading either.

- Broadband subs appear to have saturated for Virgin Media, I imagine mostly being down to the significant inroads that VDSL rollout has made in recent years, now being a "good enough" product to viably compete against the DOCSIS product even if headline speed differences still appear significant

- Telephone subs essentially flat

- Overall subscriptions (or "Revenue Generating Units") down ~10%, albeit the extent of the loss is mostly attributable to the TV side

All this despite 50,000 additional premises passed, a glitzy rebranding from UPC to Virgin Media and a sustained and extensive marketing campaign over the last 3 years.

The Cush

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q3 2018 numbers published this week (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/LG-Q3-2018-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 270,700 (-100)
--- Analogue Cable - 6,500 (-4,200)
--- Digital Cable - 264,200 (+4,100)
Internet - 375,100 (+4,000)
Telephone - 352,600 (+100)

Total Subscribers - 998,400 (+4,000)
Premises - 437,700 (+2,600)

Mobile Subscribers - 72,400 (+8,200)


They gained an additional 1,900 premises in Q3 - 800 digital video, 1,600 internet and 300 telephone. I assume this is the acquisition of Casey Cablevision in Dungarvan

JTMan

Both the Casey Cablevision acquisition and the analogue switchoff are skewing the stats which is making it difficult to decipher trends.

Anyway, video down again, on a like for like basis, when you strip out the Casey Cablevision additions. Yet another quarter of TV declines. One wonders if TV is in structural decline.

Good broadband numbers considering the array of offers out there at the moment.

Mobile numbers are getting very impressive.

EdgeCase

Their broadband is excellent and mobile phone is good value but Horizon TV is simply not a great product and has aged extremely badly. I don’t know why they’re taking so long to rollout their V6 boxes but it’s costing them TV customers.

The existing Horizon software seems to be overwhelming the hardware. It’s a laggy, hard to follow interface that looks like it was all about trying to look “cool” with poorly implemented features and a UI that’s just not very user friendly or comfortable.

galtee boy

I asked this before, but don't remember getting a clear answer, why doesn't Virgin come up with a similar IPTV system to eir Vision and Vodafone TV ? This would give them access to large parts of the country for their tv services, areas that will never have a Virgin cable going to their house, but have broadband already, that is good enough for tv. Vodafone don't have any cables of their own, they just piggy back on eir's existing infrastructure and are able to produce a pretty good, if somewhat limited, tv service.

L1011

They have no interest in offering any service off their network. They would have offered phonelibe BB years ago if they did.

Wabbit Ears

galtee boy wrote: »

I asked this before, but don't remember getting a clear answer, why doesn't Virgin come up with a similar IPTV system to eir Vision and Vodafone TV ? This would give them access to large parts of the country for their tv services, areas that will never have a Virgin cable going to their house, but have broadband already, that is good enough for tv. Vodafone don't have any cables of their own, they just piggy back on eir's existing infrastructure and are able to produce a pretty good, if somewhat limited, tv service.

Vodafone only deliver IPTV to vodafone BB customers and Eir do the same.


There is a common misconception that Vodafone is just rebranded Eir. Yes they use Eir lines but the back end infrastructure is completely separate.



VM do have an IPTV service that's available on apple, android and on the web. The STB they just released in Switzerland and will be rolled out here is an IPTV capable box.


The main reason eir Vodafone and VM dont sell off their own footprint is content rights as opposed to any specific technical limitation.

EdgeCase

It depends how the market develops but I think they’re primarily a broadband company, so it’s all on-net and Virgin TV at present isn’t a very good product. It’s certainly not compelling enough without their broadband.

Who knows how the market may develop, especially if Sky pushes out hard with Siro over the the next couple of years.

For now though, it’s unlikely.

Also with "cord cutting" I think you'll be seeing the rapid fizzling out of that era when Sky and cable dominated tv.

The Cush

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q4 2018 numbers published today (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Liberty-Global-Q4-2018-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 271,100 (+400)
--- Analogue Cable - 4,500 (-2,000)
--- Digital Cable - 266,600 (+2,400)
Internet - 375,700 (+600)
Telephone - 352,300 (-300)

Total Subscribers - 999,100 (+700)
Premises - 437,200 (-500)

Mobile Subscribers - 81,500 (+9,100)

JTMan

Analogue Cable almost dead.
Digital Cable seems to have being helped by the various TV promos at the moment.
Mobile numbers good again.
Number of premises declining is not good. The price competition from Vodafone and others are hurting.

The Cush

JTMan wrote: »

Analogue Cable almost dead.
Digital Cable seems to have being helped by the various TV promos at the moment.

Looking at the last few quarters' figures, digital cable numbers appear to have benefitted from analogue cable switch off starting back in Q2 last year. Existing subscribers moving subscription from analogue to digital and/or new subscribers to digital who previously had free access to the analogue cable channels via their cable broadband connection.

The Cush

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q1 2019 numbers published earlier this month (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Liberty-Global-Q1-2019-Press-Release..pdf

Video Subscribers - 272,100 (+1,000)
--- Analogue Cable - 2,900 (-1,600)
--- Digital Cable - 269,200 (+2,600)
Internet - 378,100 (+2,400)
Telephone - 352,300 (n/c)

Total Subscribers - 929,800 (+6,800)
Premises - 437,700 (+500)

Mobile Subscribers - 86,100 (+4,600)

Virgin Media Ireland promises new TV box and faster wifi speeds

New box coming in the autumn

Virgin Media Ireland is to introduce a new, higher-specification television box for its 269,000 Irish TV customers later this year.

It has also launched a new ‘smart wifi’ system and says it will add at least 20,000 homes to its 930,000-premise Irish network reach this year.

“We know we haven’t quite kept pace with some other television boxes,” said Paul Farrell, the company’s vice president of commercial operations.

“This will be a wireless multi-room box with 4K and all the bells and whistles. It will do everything that the UK box currently does although it will be a different model. We’re expecting to make an announcement about this this Autumn. We’re very excited about it.”

No plans to offer 1Gb connections

Mr Farrell also said that one in five of the company’s new broadband customers have opted for its higher 500Mbs broadband service. The faster product, which costs €69 per month after a promotional period, is being targeted at “busy” households with gamers and other high bandwidth users.

He said that the company has no imminent plans to offer a 1,000Mbs product, citing lack of current demand.

“Our network is absolutely capable of that,” he told Independent.ie. “We’ve taken Comreg and others through the figures to show that we have a future proof network. When there is demand for that speed, we will absolutely offer it.”

Will not be doing wholesale

Mr Farrell said that Virgin does not plan to open its network up as a wholesale option to other operators, despite being the only high speed network in Dublin at present.

“No is the short answer,” he said. “We have a philosophy with our network and we have no plans to do that.”

Upgrading and extending network

Mr Farrell made the remarks against the backdrop of Eir announcing that it will upgrade most of its urban networks from copper to fibre-to-the-home, which it will also offer to other operators.

Mr Farrell said that Virgin’s broadband network currently reaches 930,000 premises around the country. He said that the company would build out between 20,000 and 30,000 premises to the network’s reach area this year. He also said that it expects to add a similar amount in coming years, but that it would largely follow new-build housing plans in urban or semi-urban areas.

JTMan

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q2 2019 numbers published earlier this month (in brackets, quarter on quarter +/-)
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Liberty-Global-Q2-2019-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 269,400 (-1,900)
--- Analogue Cable - 1,100 (-1,800)
--- Digital Cable - 268,300 (-900)
Internet - 376,200 (-1,900)
Telephone - 345,800 (-6,500)

Total Subscriptions - 991,400 (-11,100)
Premises - 434,500 (-3,200)
Premises passed - 941,400 (+11,600)

Mobile Subscribers - 91,500 (+5,400)


- TV subs show ongoing decline.
- Analogue almost at end of life.
- Broadband subs a disappointment. Price competition surely a factor.
- Footprint continues to grow.
- Mobile subs still booming.
- Landline stats are bogus as often included as a forced bundle.

Tigerandahalf

If you look at the 1st post in this thread Virgin had over half the premises that are now covered but today have actually less digital cable subscribers (70,000 less roughly).

JTMan

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

If you look at the 1st post in this thread Virgin had over half the premises that are now covered but today have actually less digital cable subscribers (70,000 less roughly).

Yeah, shows the big decline over the last few years that his happening with linear TV viewing and linear TV subs thanks to streaming.

JTMan

Liberty Global (Virgin Media) Q3 2019 numbers
https://2zn23x1nwzzj494slw48aylw-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Liberty-Global-Q3-2019-Press-Release.pdf

Video Subscribers - 276,900 (+8,600)
--- Analogue Cable 0 (-1,100)
--- Digital Cable - 276,900 (+8,600)
Internet - 379,200 (+3,000)
Telephone - 344,700 (-1,100)

Total Subscriptions - 1,000,800 (+9,400)
Premises - 436,700 (+2,200)
Premises passed - 946,400 (+5,000)

Mobile Subscribers - 98,000 (+6,500)


- Mobile subs still booming but the above stats are pre-GoMo stats. The next quarter will be interesting to see to GoMo impact.
- Analogue, after all these years, at zero.
- 59 EUR TV and broadband bundle that ran in Q3 surely played a big part in the TV and broadband subs.
- Footprint continues to grow.
- Landline stats are bogus as often included as a forced bundle.

Tigerandahalf

98,000 is quite impressive for mobile subscribers given that they are piggy backing.
I presume a combined bill is attractive to people. Perhaps there were some sweetener phone deals in there too.

tsue921i8wljb3

Virgin Media in the UK have switched MVNO operations from BT to Vodafone. I wonder if that could be in the cards for Ireland also.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/06/virgin-media-agrees-five-year-mobile-deal-with-vodafone-uk

Also I'd expect to see pressure on Virgin's internet subscriber numbers in future quarters as eir's urban FTTH build gathers pace.

Delta2113

Timothy Some Grimace wrote: »

Virgin Media in the UK have switched MVNO operations from BT to Vodafone. I wonder if that could be in the cards for Ireland also.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/06/virgin-media-agrees-five-year-mobile-deal-with-vodafone-uk

Also I'd expect to see pressure on Virgin's internet subscriber numbers in future quarters as eir's urban FTTH build gathers pace.

- No as they have a deal with Three.