Liberty Global posts increased revenues and full-year loss

European cable giant Liberty Global increased revenues by US$1billion (€750 million) last year, posting a total of US$9.5 billion for the full year compared with US$8.4 for the previous year. The company posted a loss of US$772.7 million, compared to a profit of US$388.2 million in 2010 when it benefited from the sale of its Japanese operation.

LG’s UPC Broadband division ended 2011 with 15.2 million subscribers, an increase of 2.3 million on 2010. Germany, where UPC recently acquired regional operator Kabel BW, was UPC’s largest market with 6.8 million subscribers, of which two million took digital services. In Poland, including the recently acquired Aster customer base, digital subscriber numbers were up 41,500 to 626,100.

Telenet, LG’s Belgian operator, increased its digital subscriber base by 48,700 to a total of 1.4 million.

LG’s president and CEO Mike Fries said, “The operating momentum we exhibited throughout 2011 continued into the fourth quarter with 380,000 net RGU additions, and 1.2 million for the full year. Our broadband bundles are driving demand across our footprint, which is now over 90% upgraded to offer 100Mbps-plus speeds. This demand propelled us to a record quarter in both broadband and telephony, as we added approximately 230,000 RGUs of each product in the fourth quarter.”