Liberty Global’s Virgin...
Liberty Global’s Virgin Media TiVo-based DVR service edged up slightly to 2.1 million subscribers in Q1 due to new subscription options designed to underscore quad-play packages, Liberty executives said Wednesday on an earnings call. The TiVo service in the U.K.,…
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which came as part of Liberty Global’s $24 billion acquisition of Virgin Media in 2013, accounted for 2.1 million of the cable operator’s 3.8 million video subscribers, and was up from 2 million in the previous quarter and 1.8 million in Q3, company executives said. Virgin, which imposed a 6.7 percent increase in subscription fees effective Feb. 1, launched a quad-play Big Kahuna package this month to existing customers that combines the 240-channel TiVo service with a broadband service with 152 Mbps download speeds and mobile that includes 250 MB of data and unlimited texts. Big Kahuna carries a $76.35 monthly fee with the mobile option available for an extra $8.50, company executives said. The Big Bang package carries a $50.89 monthly fee in pairing TiVo and 100 Mbps download broadband service and the mobile option, they said. Virgin’s new programming options, which are being promoted in ads featuring Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, have so far given “early indications that they are pretty attractive” with existing Virgin subscribers, Virgin Media CEO Thomas Mockridge said. Virgin’s quad play has 16 percent penetration with subscribers, analysts have said. The new packages will be available to new Virgin customers late this month, Mockridge said. Virgin is moving to “integrate and make mobile part of the cable business,” Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said. Virgin ended Q1 with about 3 million mobile subscribers, including 1.9 million postpaid and 1.1 million prepaid customers. Meanwhile, Horizon TV, Liberty’s answer to TV Everywhere in allowing subscribers to share content across devices with a common interface and recommendation engine, will launch the Reference Design Kit (RDK) with UPC Polska’s cable service in Poland later this year, Fries said. Liberty jointly developed RDK with Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which will replace NDS’s middleware in the Samsung-made Horizon TV set-top/DVR. In building out its cable networks, Liberty also will consider investing in programming content, but largely through partnerships, not acquisitions, Fries said. The European Commission also completed the first phase of reviewing Liberty’s proposed $13.9 billion acquisition of the Netherlands-based cable operator Ziggo, which will be combined with Liberty’s NPC Netherlands, Fries said. The sale is expected to close in the second half, he said.