Lightning storm in Dublin Bay. Image: DesignPicsInc/Depositphotos
Growth in broadband, mobile and TV drives Virgin Media earnings.
Virgin Media in Ireland reported a 7pc increase in 2018 revenues to €446m, with the company finishing the year with more than 1m paying customers.
This represented an organic increase of more than 2pc as the company said it was firing on all cylinders in terms of mobile, business services, TV and cable broadband.
‘Virgin Mobile subscriptions grew by 63pc to end the year with 81,500 mobile customers enjoying great value, contract flexibility and the best smartphones on the market’
– TONY HANWAY
“Our strategy of focusing relentlessly on customer service and quality has seen us post excellent year-on-year growth as the Virgin Media brand continues to go from strength to strength in Ireland,” said Virgin Media Ireland CEO Tony Hanway.
“Our multi-annual network expansion programme, Project Lightning, is bringing Ireland’s fastest broadband and the best-connected entertainment experience to more and more customers in towns and cities across the country, covering 923,000 homes.
“In 2018 we extended our reach in multiple locations including Arklow, Athy, Portarlington, Tuam, Wexford, Wicklow, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Ennis, Dundalk, Drogheda, Ballincollig, Shannon and Limerick.”
Sparking up mobile
Virgin Media’s parent company, Liberty Global, reported revenues of $11.9bn, up 2pc on the previous year.
Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said that the sale of the company’s operations to Vodafone in Germany, Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic and Austria remains on track for completion in mid-2019.
In Ireland, Hanway said the company is making particularly fast headway into mobile. “Virgin Mobile subscriptions grew by 63pc to end the year with 81,500 mobile customers enjoying great value, contract flexibility and the best smartphones on the market.”
Hanway added that Virgin Media TV also saw very strong revenue performance helped by audience growth across both traditional channels and on-demand services.
“Major event programming such as the Six Nations, Ireland’s Got Talent and new Irish drama Blood [ensured] we broadcast more original Irish content than ever before.
“It was a pivotal year for our TV team as we successfully rebranded our free-to-air channels from TV3 to Virgin Media Television and successfully launched our Virgin Media Sport channel, which is available exclusively to Virgin Media TV customers and is the home to all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches,” Hanway said.
Lightning storm in Dublin Bay. Image: DesignPicsInc/Depositphotos
