Liberty Global adds 920,000 digital cable subscribers in 2012
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
ENGLEWOOD, Colorado — Liberty Global, Inc. (“Liberty Global,” “LGI,” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK), today announces financial and operating results for the year and three months (“Q4”) ended December 31, 2012.
Subscriber Statistics
In terms of our TV business, we lost 287,000 video subscribers (including just 28,000 in Q4) in 2012, which reflected a 7% improvement compared to our video losses in 2011 and represents our lowest annual video attrition in five years in absolute terms despite a significantly larger footprint. We finished 2012 with a digital video base of 9.1 million RGUs, as we added 920,000 digital cable RGUs (including 217,000 in Q4) during the year. As a result, our digital penetration increased to 52% compared to 46% at year-end 2011. We expect that our opportunity to continue driving digital upgrades will be enhanced by our recently launched Horizon TV product and with nearly 8.5 million analog video subscribers, we remain confident in the video growth opportunity.
The take-up of Horizon TV in the Dutch market remained robust during the fourth quarter, and the early results so far in Switzerland have been very positive. We look forward to launching Horizon TV in Germany and Ireland later this year.
Consolidated Operating Data – December 31, 2012 – Video
Total
Analog Digital Video
Cable Cable DTH MMDS Homes
--------- ----------- --------- ------- -----------
UPC/Unity Division:
Germany 4,503,600 2,185,900 - - 6,689,500
The Netherlands* 651,600 1,078,000 - - 1,729,600
Switzerland* 842,500 606,000 - - 1,448,500
Austria 199,400 335,900 - - 535,300
Ireland 63,000 337,800 - 45,600 446,400
Total Western Europe 6,260,100 4,543,600 - 45,600 10,849,300
Poland 546,000 756,300 - - 1,302,300
Hungary 306,900 327,100 242,900 - 876,900
Romania 428,700 423,600 319,700 - 1,172,000
Czech Republic 76,100 406,000 102,200 - 584,300
Slovakia 84,100 123,100 54,300 1,100 262,600
Total CEE 1,441,800 2,036,100 719,100 1,100 4,198,100
Total UPC/Unity 7,701,900 6,579,700 719,100 46,700 15,047,400
Telenet (Belgium) 549,200 1,573,500 - - 2,122,700
VTR (Chile) 163,200 769,300 - - 932,500
Puerto Rico - 205,900 - - 205,900
--------- ----------- --------- ------- -----------
Grand Total 8,414,300 9,128,400 719,100 46,700 18,308,500
Net Adds (Reductions) vs. September 30, 2012:
Organic (286,000) 217,100 43,400 (2,300) (27,800)
Adjustments/Acquisitions (11,000) 124,300 - 400 113,700
Total (297,000) 341,400 43,400 (1,900) 85,900
* Pursuant to service agreements, Switzerland and, to a much lesser extent, the Netherlands offer digital cable, broadband internet and telephony services over networks owned by third-party cable operators (“partner networks”). A partner network RGU is only recognized if there is a direct billing relationship with the customer. Homes Serviceable for partner networks represent the estimated number of homes that are technologically capable of receiving the applicable service within the geographic regions covered by the applicable service agreements. Internet and Telephony Homes Serviceable with respect to partner networks have been estimated by our Switzerland operations. These estimates may change in future periods as more accurate information becomes available. At December 31, 2012, Switzerland’s partner networks account for 125,500 Customer Relationships, 236,500 RGUs, 91,900 Digital Cable Subscribers, 466,600 Internet and Telephony Homes Serviceable, 83,500 Internet Subscribers, and 61,100 Telephony Subscribers. In addition, partner networks account for 454,100 of Switzerland’s digital cable homes serviceable that are not included in Homes Passed or Two-way Homes Passed in our December 31, 2012 subscriber table.
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