Cable network operator Liberty Global reports a 2 percent decrease in revenue to USD 2.65 billion in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year. The decrease was caused by the unfavourable impact of the strengthening US dollar relative to the company's functional currencies on a year-over-year comparison. Adjusting for the effects of foreign currency movements, Liberty Global's revenues grew 8 percent year-on-year, reflecting a combination of organic growth and the positive effect of acquisitions completed by Japanese cable network operator J:Com and Belgian cable network operator Telenet in late 2008. Liberty Global's consolidated ARPU per customer was USD 44.81 for the second quarter, down 5 percent year-on-year. The operating cash flow grew by 2 percent to USD 1.17 billion for the second quarter, driven by operations in Poland, Belgium and Australia, each of which delivered rebased OCF growth in excess of 14 percent. The OCF margin grew by 190 basis points to 44.1 percent for the second quarter. The quarterly net loss dropped form USD 428 million in the second quarter of 2008 to USD 93 million in the second quarter of this year, and capex fell 2 percent to USD 549 million. Liberty Global reports 26.6 million RGUs (Revenue Generating Units) on 30 June, after winning 206,000 new RGUs during the quarter, including 198,000 organic additions.
In total, Liberty Global operations had 16.7 million customers, of which 15.3 million used TV services, 6.4 million used broadband services and 4.9 million used telephony services. Of the organic growth, telephony and broadband internet accounted for 150,000 and 128,000 additions, respectively, and video accounted for a loss of 80,000 RGUs. The organic growth continues to be driven by the success of advanced services (digital TV, broadband and telephony), which have grown to represent 70 percent of the total RGU base. During the quarter, Liberty Global added 650,000 advance service subscriptions, down 4 percent year-on-year. At the end of the quarter, 6.6 million or 40 percent of all customers had a multi-product bundle, which reflects a 15 percent improvement in bundled customers over the last twelve months. The number of digital cable customers grew by 370,000 during the quarter to reach almost 6 million on 30 June of this year, representing a penetration of 43 percent of all cable TV customers. Of those digital cable customers more than 35 percent also use a DVR and/or HD service.
