Bundled deals deliver for UPC

ENHANCED broadband is the battleground which newly rebranded TV, broadband and phone service provider UPC has drawn up for its main rivals.

During the first quarter of 2010 that tactic has helped deliver revenue growth of 10% for the company. Having dropped its NTL and Chorus brands, UPC’s new sales pitch in the Q1, 2010, report issued yesterday is all about its new €350 million upgraded fibre 1MG broadband and the 100Mbps connectivity promised by the year’s end.

UPC has been offering customers bundled deals on its combined high-definition TV, broadband and home phone package.

That pitch drew in 12,000 new cable broadband subscribers over the quarter.

Of those, 8,000 were new home phone customers, a 13% growth. It has doubled its phone customer base in just 12 months.

UPC chief executive, Robert Dunn, said: “We have increased the number of services to our customers by 53,000 over the past 12 months, demonstrating the benefits of our investment programme.

“More customers than ever are taking our triple play bundle of TV, broadband and telephone.

“More customers are choosing faster broadband. This exciting step emphatically demonstrates the advantage fibre-powered cable has over traditional copper wires. Our financial performance is accelerating as we move through our investment in broadband and high definition TV.”

During the first three months of 2010, UPC grew its digital TV base by over 10,000 to more than 359,000 subscribers, a 2.9% growth rate. But, when you add in MMDS and other non-digital customers, UPC has just short of 500,000 of what its report calls “total video” subscribers.

To put this in context, back in mid-2003 and long before this week’s re-branding with UPC, only 55,000 of NTL’s then 360,000 TV subscribers had switched to digital.