Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Liberty Global plc to release its second quarter 2014 results on Tuesday, August 5, 2014.

http://www.libertyglobal.com/pdf/pre...l-In-FINAL.pdf

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

"Our British operation also improved sequentially and posted 3% rebased growth for Q2 2014, as compared to 1% growth in Q1 2014. Our cable subscription business in the U.K. reported 3% year-over-year rebased growth, despite a $12million negative impact as a result of a May 1, 2014 legislative change to the VAT rules. In addition, our mobile and B2B businesses in the U.K. delivered improved Q2 results with 12% and 6% rebased revenue growth, respectively, but were partly offset by a decrease in revenue from Virgin Media's offnet business and lower interconnect rates."
http://www.libertyglobal.com/pdf/pre...2-14-FINAL.pdf

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

And the first details of network expansion should be available today

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

See also specific VM results: http://www.libertyglobal.com/pdf/pre...ults-FINAL.pdf

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Some interesting analysis on Liberty Global's CEE operations.
http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2014/...iberty-in-cee/

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

So they have less tv customers than this time last year and the same with telephone.

Always find their foot notes more informative than the actual main report.


Wasn't aware that one house could = three RGU's.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

With UPC Netherlands looking set to be rebranded as Ziggo in Holland I think Liberty Global may also think about rebrand UPC Ireland as Virgin Media Ireland.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Sky do the same now when reporting RGUs. It helps them report increasing numbers while their TV business has saturated. I'm aware they have been increasing TV additions but this includes Now TV subscribers which they don't provide actual numbers for.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I agree and can see the two operations combining as the content they buy is nearly identical. In one way it's also a shame that Ireland got Horizon as they could have had Tivo which would have standardised the set-up in the island of Ireland and Britain.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I think Virgin Media deal with TiVo is up by 2019. Deal was sign in late 2009.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Well, judging from the feedback from our Irish friends, I can't see VM rushing to introduce Horizon here too soon, though by 2019 the glitches should have been ironed up. The comments on this article are quite damning though:
"I wish I had never upgraded."
"I have been a loyal customer of UPC for a long time now and was always plugging their internet service. However this loyalty is fast disappearing with the help of the Horizon box, this is without doubt one of the worst pieces of kit that I have had to endure and is certainly not fit for purpose. UPC and Samsung need to scrap it and start again. "
"Just installed Horizon box yesterday and very unhappy."
"We’ve been using the Horizon box for a week and would thoroughly recommend UPC customers to wait 6 months at least before getting it. The box freezes or pauses on almost every task..."
http://www.theeffect.net/2013/08/15/upc-horizon-review/

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

And even after 2019 l cannot see that changing as why change to a dud STB.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Yes, it's an area where Sky struggle but also an opportunity. Sky's triple play penetration is around 35%, whereas VM sits at around 65%. So from a cash generation perspective it's an opportunity for Sky if they can get more customers to add more products.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Sky's triple play is currently 37% , triple play has only been available since 2006 both NTL and Telewest have been bundling triple play together for many more years before coming Virgin Media so its hardly surprising they've have a greater percentage taking triple play.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Horizon is evolving, so who knows what 2019 will look like!

http://www.digitaltveurope.net/22235...d-tv-platform/

Saying that, as TiVo are also working on a Cloud version of their platform, it's interesting times ahead across Liberty Global

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

My recollection of Tivo in its early days was constant freezing with reboots taking for ever, poor picture quality, recording only on two channels at once, slow operation.

Though much improved (but still without dynamic EPG - unbelievable) I still do not hold it up as the wonderful creation that many on this forum do. Perhaps when the bugs are sorted and with 5 years of development the Horizon box will be better than Tivo.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Yes, I said about, actual is 37%, VM actual 66.1%, point was that it's an area for growth if Sky can find a way of driving take up. It's currently growing at 2% per annum, although this should accelerate with the free BB offers etc

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

TiVo is much better than the old virgin STB's but it still has a long, long way to go in my book. It's very slow, menus lag, screens are incredibly inconsistent (With many dropping down to SD for some reason) and it's not very intuitive in places.

Prime example I discovered last night - wanted to watch the Great British Bakeoff (huge fan).

Went into the catchup menu, A-Z, went to G - not listed. Took about a minute to get this far.

Went into OnDemand menu, got asked which package to look at - XL, L, M, etc. - I'm on XL, picked XL (Why on earth couldn't this be more automated?), scrolled down to G, scrolled down all of the shows, eventually found it listed. Took maybe 90s as each button press takes 1-3s to respond. Noticed it mentioned that I had a series link already! Brilliant, would rather play it from the hard drive than stream it.

Back to the start, navigate to my shows, find Bake Off, says I have 10 episodes. That's fine, except Tuesday's Wednesday's episode isn't listed - this is all the last series. Odd.

Looked at the series link options - it's already set to new episodes and repeats, it even lists that the next episode to air is next tuesday's wednesday's so why didn't it record?

Turns out the program has moved from BBC2 to BBC1. Had to set up a brand new series link to catch it. That's exactly the kind of issue that could have been easily avoided (Why does the series link need to be per channel? I have software on my server that's clever enough to know when and where a new episode is showing, TiVo should be capable of doing the same - in fact, it KNOWS this already because it tells you!).

Ended up having to stream it anyway, which meant trundling back through the menus. Must have taken a good 10mins - and of course, you have to manually enable HD when streaming from iPlayer.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Kushan, Just so you don't miss your fix of baking.

The actual weekly show is on a Wednesday on BBC1.

What is on BBC2 is 'An Extra Slice'.

So, two series links needed or, as the TiVo gurus would say, a single Wishlist.

Happy baking.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Ahhh you are quite correct! I knew it was on Wednesday, I don't know why I keep getting Tuesday stuck in my head (I'm sure it used to be on a Tuesday). Didn't know about the "extra slice" bit though! Cheers.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Both TiVo and Horizon will need replacing long before that. STB chipsets only have a production life of 3 to 5 years.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Possibly wishful thinking, but I'd love them to integrate Android TV into the next generation boxes. Doubt it'll happen, sadly.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

So are we talking about TiVo 2 the next generation?.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I don't think it's up to Liberty what is branded as Virgin Media. The agreements cover ex-ntl/Telewest. Liberty can't just take the name and do as they please with it.

Liberty spent a long time slowly migrating UPC Ireland from ntl to UPC, too.

---------- Post added at 12:57 ---------- Previous post was at 12:52 ----------

Obvious way for Sky to drive take up is to invest in their own access network, which they are looking at through various trials, rather than using the same network as every other xDSL ISP. Comparing Sky's 38Mb for £20/month, requires phone line at £15.40/month, and 76Mb for £30/month, requires phone line at £15.40/month, with VM. It's not flattering - VM deliver 152Mb + phone line for less than Sky sell half that speed, and 100Mb for a quid a month more than Sky sell 38Mb.

---------- Post added at 13:00 ---------- Previous post was at 12:57 ----------

Cable companies and, in turn, Sky once they started offering telco and DSL, have all done this. An RGU is any product a customer has purchased that, well, generates revenue. A single household can happily be a 4 RGU property if taking mobile as well as fixed-line.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Don't know at the moment. It's being looked at.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I'm sure they would happily describe our household as a 5 RGU property - TV, internet, fixed-line and 2 No. mobiles - all 5 services are in my name, in years gone by when I paid for our daughters mobile it would have been 6! I'm also pretty certain there are plenty of people out there who are counted even more times than I am!

Cheers

Grim

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Thy lips are sealed one suspects.;)

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Couldn't have put it any better , its far easier for a Sky telephone/BB customer to migrate their service away to the likes of BT , Plusnet , Talk Talk etc.

If Sky could start to build its own fibre network and become less reliant on Openreach I'm sure it would pay dividends long term.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I think the problem with that is how long that "long term" aspect is. There's probably no point in rolling out anything other than pure fibre at this point for a totally new network and that's not cheap to do.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

It costs no more than anything else for a completely new network. Rolling out anything besides FTTP would be a bizarre decision.

I can understand VM deploying deep fibre HFC in areas which are getting tacked onto existing network or even just extending the existing coax but where they are doing new new build I would expect them to be deploying FTTP. It costs less than HFC to deploy and less to run, no need for any active hardware or cabinets in the field, everything can go underground in chambers. Only thing that's more expensive is installs to properties due to the kit needed within the property.

---------- Post added at 14:25 ---------- Previous post was at 14:25 ----------

Possibly but it's a case of how long term you'd look. £1,000 per property, whether connected or not, is ouchy.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Absolutely and you'd imagine it would only happen in the more lucrative areas , its great too see VM are expanding their network hopefully we'll see even more areas in the future.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Well, Sky does have the CityFibre and TalkTalk joint venture together with its own trials in Basingstoke so over time the percentage of broadband delivered via Openreach will reduce. Cherry-picking a few key areas that account for a relatively high proportion of its clients is probably a good starting point allowing it to assess the costs and benefits.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

No, I really don't know. I don't work on new stuff any more.

If my lips were sealed, I'd say so. Or possibly "mmmnmnmnfmnfff" ;)

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

I may be wrong but I thought I read that Sky has an increase of tv customers this year, although not a huge amount. The Now tv subscriptions on top too.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Well that's the big question nowadays. Sky do not publish their DTH TV additions anymore, they are blended with now TV, not sure how relevant that is to the triple play penetration though?

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Indeed, see their results here - 10.69m TV customers y/e 30/06/14 v 10.42m y/e 30/06/13 combining NowTV and Sky DTH. http://corporate.sky.com/investors/l...esults/q4_1314

---------- Post added at 21:04 ---------- Previous post was at 21:01 ----------

I guess it will deflate Sky's triple-play penetration as Now TV customers are unlikely to be Sky broadband or telephony customers as well. Or is this an erroneous assumption?

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Whilst the DTH customers are clearly more lucrative it's worth remembering all those taking Now TV pay subs ranging from £4.99 - £13.98 , at the recent Q4 results it was announced one in five now take both the entertainment pass and the movies pass at a current cost of £13.98. Most of the other platforms BT , Talk Talk and VM now offer low cost tv packs and include them in their subscriber figures.

I believe Now TV are also looking to increase subs , this was delayed due to the recent issues with the service , for a time Now TV sold bundles with BB/Fibre and telephone.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Yes, it's an excellent move to continue driving revenue when competition across all platforms are increasing. The challenge is how do they drive potential customers to take their broadband offering as well?

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Totally agree it's an interesting time isn't it.

On the one hand you have Sky who are certainly the key player in the UK pay tv/content market exploring possibilities with fibre.

On the other you have VM/Liberty already a strong player in the broadband market looking to increase their content assets.

I suppose you can also throw others into the mix , I still believe BT will have more of a say in the TV market going forward especially if they snatch more of Sky's Crown Jewels. Talk Talk and Netflix have also done pretty well.

Re: Liberty Global Second Quarter Results.
 

Yes interesting times, i have always thought VM could create turmoil if they found a way of doing away with line rental while finding another way to delver the revenue it generates.

I appreciate they already have a bb offering without the phone line but it's not a real game changer in its current guise