Liberty Global adds 382k digital cable and 23k DTH subscribers in 4Q09
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010ENGLEWOOD, Colorado — Liberty Global, Inc. (“Liberty Global,” “LGI,” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK), today announces financial and operating results for the fourth quarter (“Q4”) and year ended December 31, 2009.
Subscriber Statistics
At December 31, 2009, we provided our 16.6 million global customers a total of 27.1 million services, consisting of 15.2 million video, 6.7 million broadband internet and 5.2 million telephony subscriptions. Our RGUs include 19.9 million advanced service RGUs, representing 73% of our total RGUs, which is a 2.8 million or 16% increase over 2008 advanced service RGUs of 17.1 million. As a result of this growth in advanced services, our bundled customer base increased 10% in 2009, as we finished the year with 42% of our 16.6 million customers subscribing to two or more products.
In 2009, we added 932,000 organic RGUs, with our operations in Europe, Japan, the Americas and Australia contributing 431,000, 333,000, 147,000 and 21,000 additions, respectively. Our fourth quarter organic additions of 322,000, accounting for 35% of our 2009 organic additions, reflect our strongest quarter of the year and a 13% improvement over our Q4 2008 organic additions of 284,000. The quarterly year-over-year increase in RGUs was due largely to lower video losses and higher broadband additions, especially in our Dutch operation.
With respect to video, we lost 260,000 organic subscribers in 2009, including 30,000 in the fourth quarter. Our fourth quarter performance represents the best quarter for LGI since Q4 2007 with respect to organic video losses. This performance also compares favorably to our organic video loss of 49,000 in Q4 2008 and to our average quarterly organic video loss of 77,000, for the first three quarters of 2009. Our improved results in Q4 were driven in part by substantially lower analog churn in the Netherlands.
Propelled by traction from our DVR, HD and VoD offerings, digital cable was our most successful product in 2009, as we added 1.6 million organic digital cable additions, including 377,000 in the fourth quarter. As compared to full-year 2008 results, organic digital cable additions increased by 12%, led by Telenet. We ended 2009 with a digital cable RGU base of 6.7 million, which was a 31% gain over our year-end 2008 digital cable RGUs of 5.1 million. As a result, our consolidated digital penetration increased to 48% at December 31, 2009 from 36% at December 31, 2008, as all key cable operations showed year-over-year improvements. Specifically, digital penetration of the UPC Broadband Division (“UPC”) increased from 24% to 34% during 2009, as UPC added over 700,000 digital cable RGUs. Instrumental to this growth at UPC in digital cable has been the DVR, as we added over 400,000 DVR customers in 2009, reaching 38% DVR penetration and surpassing 1.0 million DVRs on the UPC digital cable base.
The 2009 performance of our Dutch operation, particularly in the fourth quarter, was a notable highlight. Demonstrating success across all three products, the Netherlands added 48,000 organic RGUs in Q4 2009, as compared to 9,000 in Q4 2008. With respect to video, our Dutch operation added 41,000 digital cable subscribers in Q4, its best quarter in three years, and reduced total video losses by 54% as compared to Q4 2008. This video performance was attributable to our expansion in content, including HD and on demand programming, improved triple-play offers and the halo effect of our “Fiber Power” roll-out. Additionally, the Netherlands added a record 34,000 broadband internet subscribers in Q4, reflecting growth in excess of 200% over Q4 2008 additions. Our “Fiber Power” products were the catalyst to this growth, as we have significantly improved the consumer value proposition and have clearly delineated our platform’s speed advantage versus DSL. As one of our most advanced markets in terms of product offerings and positioning, we view this success as an indicator of the growth potential that exists for our other markets.
Subscribers – December 31, 2009:
Total Analog Digital Video Cable Cable DTH MMDS Homes --------- --------- --------- ------- ---------- UPC Broadband Division: The Netherlands 1,203,900 751,400 -- -- 1,955,300 Switzerland 1,167,100 379,200 -- -- 1,546,300 Austria 308,300 233,000 -- -- 541,300 Ireland 153,600 276,900 -- 74,300 504,800 Total Western Europe 2,832,900 1,640,500 -- 74,300 4,547,700 Hungary 448,500 157,400 186,000 -- 791,900 Romania 837,600 231,000 181,000 -- 1,249,600 Poland 787,200 229,400 -- -- 1,016,600 Czech Republic 152,100 379,700 104,100 -- 635,900 Slovakia 178,500 61,300 32,500 3,900 276,200 Total Central and Eastern Europe 2,403,900 1,058,800 503,600 3,900 3,970,200 Total UPC Broadband Division 5,236,800 2,699,300 503,600 78,200 8,517,900 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 (233,900) 192,400 20,400 (2,900) (24,000) Telenet (Belgium) 1,341,600 1,000,900 -- -- 2,342,500 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 (105,300) 84,700 -- -- (20,600) Q4 2009 Belgium adjustment (5,700) 4,600 -- -- (1,100) J:COM (Japan) 250,200 2,348,400 -- -- 2,598,600 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 (74,200) 84,900 -- -- 10,700 The Americas: VTR (Chile) 370,400 531,800 -- -- 902,200 Puerto Rico -- 87,500 -- -- 87,500 Total The Americas 370,400 619,300 -- -- 989,700 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 (19,300) 20,000 -- -- 700 Austar (Australia) -- -- 741,600 -- 741,600 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 -- -- 2,400 -- 2,400 Grand Total 7,199,000 6,667,900 1,245,200 78,200 15,190,300 Variance vs. Sept. 30, 2009 (432,700) 382,000 22,800 (2,900) (30,800)
More: Earnings Release
Latest News
- 30% of EU SVOD viewing time goes to content from the EU plus UK
- Circle City renews with Nielsen for Local TV measurement
- Skyworth and China Mobile launch 8K set-top box
- Orange Spain, MASMOVIL joint venture begins operations
- Brightcove launches Cloud Playout 2.0
- MediaKind to unveil video, streaming and AI technologies at NAB