Virgin Media will attempt to head off customer anger at its latest price hike by offering customers a series of “targeted service enhancements,” parent company Liberty Global has announced.
Last week the UK’s largest cable firm revealed “the majority” of its customers will see monthly bills increase between £1.99 and £3.99 per month from November.
In May a trading statement issued by Liberty Global revealed that a price rise imposed last year was still costing it customers, with churn – the number of people cancelling their services – reaching 15.0% in the first quarter of this year.
LG’s latest trading update suggests UK managers will be working to avoid a repeat of those losses by offering “the majority of impacted customers” package boosts such as “speed increases, customer premises equipment (“CPE”) upgrades and additional TV content.”
The update also reveals the firm’s TV base grew by 33,000 thanks in part to the “relaunch of Virgin TV and the successful rollout of our Virgin TV V6 set-top box”. Recent years had seen the service’s user base stagnate thanks to price competition from rivals and a lack of exclusive content.
Installation and other upfront costs paid by new and upgrading customers delivered a “24%” increase in non-subscription revenue but the average revenue per user (ARPU) “remained relatively flat compared”.