Businessweek

Virgin Media Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages entertainment and communications business. The company offers a ‘quad-play’ broadband Internet, television, mobile telephony, and fixed line telephony services to residential and commercial customers throughout the U.K. As of December 31, 2012, the company provided services to 4.9 million residential cable customers on its network. The company’s subsidiaries include Virgin Media Investment Holdings Limited and Virgin Media Investments Limited. Segments The company operates through two segments, Consumer and Business. CONSUMER This segment includes the distribution of television programming through the company’s cable network, and the provision of broadband and fixed line telephone services to residential consumers, both on and off its cable network. This segment also includes its mobile telephony and mobile broadband operations, provided through third party mobile networks. Products and Services Cable Products and Services The company offers its customers a choice of various packages and tariffs within each of its cable product categories. Its bundled packaging and pricing are designed to encourage its customers to purchase multiple services across its product portfolio by offering incentives to customers who subscribe to various products. The company’s cable broadband Internet, television, and fixed line telephone services are distributed through its wholly owned, local access cable network, which covers parts of various major metropolitan areas in England, Wales, Scotland, and northern Ireland. Broadband Internet The company delivers high-speed broadband Internet services to customers on its cable network. As of December 31, 2012, it provided cable broadband services to approximately 4.3 million subscribers. In January 2012, the company announced a program to double the speed of its broadband, involving an investment in network capacity and in the rollout of DOCSIS 3.0 wireless gateways. It also commenced a marketing campaign starring Usain Bolt to communicate this news to its customers. The company has three tiers of high-speed cable broadband services available to new subscribers. It offers download speeds of 100 Mbit/s to approximately 1 million homes, and offers download speeds of approximately 30 Mbit/s and approximately 60 Mbit/s. Television The company offers a range of television services to customers on its cable network. As of December 31, 2012, it provided cable television services to approximately 3.8 million residential subscribers. The company’s digital television (DTV) service includes access to approximately 185 linear television channels, advanced interactive features, and a range of premium subscription-based and pay-per-view (PPV) services. The company offers a free-to-view DTV service (Free TV) to certain customers on its cable platform. Its Free TV service provides access to approximately 55 linear TV channels, such as Dave, E4, Yesterday, and Five USA, as well as radio services. The company’s cable network enables it to deliver a range of digital interactive services, including games, news, entertainment, and information services, from an on-screen menu. In addition to its linear television services, which allow its customers to view television programming at a scheduled time, its DTV and Free TV customers also have access to certain of these digital interactive services, including video-on-demand (VOD) services in the U.K. The company also offers interactive ‘red button’ applications from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other commercial broadcasters. In November 2012, the company launched Virgin TV Anywhere, an Internet streaming TV service that allows its TV customers to stream approximately 45 live TV channels, including Sky Sports, and watch approximately 4,000 hours of TV On-Demand through their Web browser, anywhere with a broadband connection. Customers are also able to discover new shows with recommendations and ratings. As an exclusive to its TiVo customers, those with iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch devices could watch approximately 25 live TV channels, manage their TiVo b