Virgin Media marketing boosts sales

Virgin Media’s marketing drive has shown signs of paying off with customers added across all of its services in the second quarter.

Virgin Media
Virgin Media

The media company says its total broadband base grew by 28,100 to 4.21m in the three months to 30 June.

It added 9,100 new cable customers, reversing a loss of 27,800 a year ago in what it says is “traditionally” the weakest quarter for the unit.

Net new TV subscribers totalled 22,300, while 66,300 new contracts were signed for its mobile services.

The boost in customer numbers helped lift total revenue up 7% to £964m, the “strongest” revenue growth since the merger between NTL and Telewest four years ago, the company says.

Virgin Media is locked in a battle with rivals BT Vision and BSkyB to secure customers for its broadband, television, cable and mobile services.

It recently launched an advertising campaign to promote the Sky Sports HD channels available through its cable TV offering and continues to push its packaged and individual services.

Marketing spend increased by 31% in the period, the company says, “reflecting our investment in driving customer growth”.