Late subscriber surge delivers Virgin Media record results

The company - which sells broadband, telephone and pay-TV packages - added 17,100 subscribers in the final three months of last year.

The growth took the number of new customers in the full year to 76,600, compared with 17,600 in 2009, due to "good" demand for broadband and mobile.

Chief executive Neil Berkett expects to maintain the rate of growth in 2011. "This is the end to a fantastic year for us," he said. "We're ahead of consensus on just about every measure.

"We're comfortable with the pace that we've got. It's modest net adds, which is generating significant free cash flow growth."

Virgin Media - which is listed in both London and New York - connected 44,100 broadband customers to the internet in the final quarter, sold 12,100 TV packages and 56,100 mobile contracts, taking the average revenue per user (ARPU) up 4.9 per cent to a record 47.51.

That helped the group push fourth-quarter revenue up 6.6 per cent to 1 billion, another record and ahead of City forecasts of 992 million. Operating cash flow was up 9.9 per cent to 404m, also ahead of forecasts.

Full-year sales were up 5.8 per cent at 3.9bn, while losses narrowed from 357.8m to 141.4m.

Berkett said Virgin Media - which was formed in 2007 through the merger of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile - would now focus on persuading fixed-line telephone customers to also take a mobile phone package and to encourage customers to upgrade for faster broadband and the new TiVo service, which automatically records TV shows.

Liberum Capital analyst Mark James said: "These numbers look in-line or better than some pretty strong expectations. ARPU is particularly strong."

Steve Malcolm at Evolution Securities added: "Virgin Media's results highlighted the virtues of the company's premium broadband position in the market."