Liberty Global Reports Fiscal 2007 Results
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008ENGLEWOOD, Colorado — Liberty Global, Inc. (“Liberty Global” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK), today announces financial and operating results for the fourth quarter (“Q4”) and year ended December 31, 2007.
Operating Statistics
Our total RGU base was 24.0 million at December 31, 2007, which represents an increase of 4.6 million RGUs or 24% from our total of 19.4 million at year end 2006. The 2007 RGU increase consisted of 3.2 million additions from M&A activity (principally Telenet) and 1.45 million additions from organic growth. We finished 2007 with 14.7 million video, 5.4 million broadband Internet and 3.9 million telephony subscribers, as we increasingly drove the penetration of our advanced services.1 This is reflected in our 1.49x bundling ratio and 33% bundling penetration at December 31, 2007, both of which reflect significant improvement over our year end 2006 bundling ratio and penetration of 1.40x and 28%, respectively. Furthermore, we added 863,000 triple-play customers across our footprint in 2007.
Of our 1.45 million organic RGU additions, we added 782,000 broadband Internet and 741,000 telephony subscribers and lost 77,000 video subscribers. Organic broadband Internet and telephony subscriber growth for the year increased 3% and 22%, respectively, from our additions for these categories in the prior year period. From a quarterly phasing perspective, the fourth quarter was our strongest quarter in terms of organic additions, up 14% over the third quarter. We added 438,000 organic subscribers or 30% of our 2007 total organic additions in the fourth quarter, with notable strength in our Central and Eastern European (“CEE”) operations.
In aggregate, broadband Internet was our strongest performer of the year. We continue to demonstrate speed leadership in this product category, as we now offer at least 20 Mbps service in most of our European markets. In the fourth quarter, we added 214,000 organic broadband Internet subscribers, a 13% sequential increase from the third quarter. During 2007, we added 4.1 million total homes serviceable to our broadband Internet footprint. As a result of our strong year in broadband Internet, we were able to drive our consolidated broadband Internet penetration to 21% at year end 2007 from 18% at year end 2006, led principally by penetration increases in Europe and Chile.
We added 741,000 organic telephony subscribers in 2007, including a record fourth quarter with 217,000 additions. Our organic telephony additions in the CEE region for the 2007 fourth quarter and full year were 47% and 35% higher than the corresponding prior year organic additions, respectively. This was due in large part to the successful marketing of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) and triple-play bundles across our footprint. We added 4.4 million telephony homes serviceable to our footprint during the year and increased consolidated telephony penetration to 16% at year end 2007 from 13% at year end 2006. Our Chilean operation currently sets the standard for Liberty Global, as it has achieved 34% telephony penetration in its footprint, while on the other hand, our CEE operations, where VoIP is relatively new, represents a significant growth opportunity as telephony penetration is only 9%.
At December 31, 2007, our 14.7 million video subscriber base consisted of 10.2 million analog2, 3.4 million digital cable and 1.1 million direct-to-home (“DTH”) subscribers. In 2007, we lost 77,000 organic video subscribers, largely as a result of a 117,000 video subscriber loss in Romania due to heightened competitive factors. However, in the second half of 2007, Liberty Global added 11,000 organic video subscribers, including 6,000 in the fourth quarter, which was a substantial improvement over our loss of 88,000 organic subscribers in the first six months of 2007. This improvement during the second half of 2007 was due in part to our successful digital cable roll-out in the Czech Republic, and solid performances in Poland, Hungary and Japan.
In terms of digital cable and DTH, we added 1.1 million organic subscribers in 2007, with six countries including Japan, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Chile, and the Netherlands, accounting for over 80% of the increase. Highlights for the year included the following: (i) J:COM finished 2007 with 67% digital penetration, an increase from 52% at December 31, 2006; (ii) both Switzerland and the Czech Republic experienced increasing digital cable additions throughout the year, ending 2007 with digital cable penetrations of 16% and 22%, respectively, which were substantial increases from their year end 2006 digital penetrations of 9% and 5%, respectively; and (iii) our fourth quarter organic digital cable and DTH additions of 381,000 were the highest of the year and reflected a 37% improvement over our fourth quarter 2006 results. Furthermore, we finished 2007 with consolidated digital cable penetration of 25%, as compared to 19% at year end 2006.
Additionally, we continue to realize incremental video ARPU gains in those markets where we have launched value-added digital products, such as premium tiers, DVRs, VoD and HD. For example, in the Netherlands, we completed the launch of our full suite of advanced services in the fall and ended 2007 with incremental digital ARPU of €8, a doubling of our year end 2006 incremental digital ARPU. As we look to 2008, we have re-launched digital in Austria and created new compelling digital offers in several markets including Ireland. We also plan to launch digital cable in two of our largest CEE markets, Poland and Hungary, and to roll-out selected advanced video services in many of our European markets. As a result of these initiatives, we expect that digital cable will be an important growth driver for us in 2008.
Consolidated Operating Data – December 31, 2007
Digital Cable DTH MMDS Subscribers Subscribers Subscribers UPC Broadband Division: The Netherlands .................... 550,300 - - Switzerland ........................ 252,700 - - Austria. ........................... 59,600 - - Ireland ............................ 226,100 - 105,200 Total Western Europe ............. 1,088,700 - 105,200 Hungary............................. - 168,000 - Romania ............................ 37,400 115,000 - Czech Republic ..................... 124,200 129,400 - Slovak Republic .................... 3,200 26,900 7,900 Slovenia ........................... 1,100 - 3,600 Total Central and Eastern Europe . 165,900 439,300 11,500 Total UPC Broadband Division ... 1,254,600 439,300 116,700 Telenet (Belgium) .................... 390,800 - - J:COM (Japan) ........................ 1,470,200 - - The Americas: VTR (Chile). ....................... 183,300 - - Puerto Rico ........................ 85,200 - - Total The Americas ............... 268,500 - - Austar (Australia). .................. 9,300 659,500 - Grand Total .......................... 3,393,400 1,098,800 116,700
1. Advanced services represent our services related to digital video (including digital cable and DTH), broadband Internet and telephony.
2. Includes analog and digital MMDS subscribers.
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