Virgin Media had its strongest subscriber performance for years in Q2, with its (ex-Project Lightning) existing base footprint showing positive growth to add to the subscribers gained on its Project Lightning network extension. This was partly due to temporary factors, with both Openreach and Sky not able to do in-home installations for part of the quarter, but the company has reported some sustained momentum, with the crisis boosting demand for higher speed broadband, and has decided not to implement its usual annual price increase in H2 to avoid the usual accompanying churn and customer dissatisfaction, instead choosing to prioritise subscriber growth to compensate for the ARPU shortfall.

Contents

Boosted for now…

Subscribers boosted by CV-19, but not just temporarily

ARPU hit by sport, but still under underlying pressure

New customer pricing firm-ish

EBITDA growth improves, but maybe temporarily

Ultrafast opportunity and threat

Guidance unchanged, due to mixed CV-19 effects

List of charts/tables

Figure 1: UK cable revenue growth and group EBITDA growth

Figure 2: Virgin Media UK consumer cable operating performance

Figure 3: Virgin Media subscriber growth

Figure 4: Virgin Media UK cable revenue and operating statistics

Figure 5: Virgin Media selected recent price changes

Figure 6: Broadband entry level dual-play pricing, new customers (£/month)

Figure 7: Broadband high speed pricing, new customers (£/month)

Figure 8: Virgin Media Group operating performance

Figure 9: Project Lightning progress (000)

Figure 10: Gigabit-capable premises covered (m)