BT have announced their quarterly financial results today for the period April - June 2010. Unlike Virgin Media yesterday who showed a revenue increase, BT's revenue was down 4% to £5,006 million (from £5,235 million June 2009) but their adjusted profit before tax was up to £446 million, a rise of 17% compared with the same financial quarter last year.
BT Retail saw revenue decrease by 7% largely due to the continued reduction in calls and lines revenue. Consumer ARPU (average revenue per user) increased to £314, up by £5 compared with the previous quarter, largely due to increasing take up of broadband within the customer base. Net additions of broadband customers were 96,000 which gives BT a market share of 40%. BT will no doubt be looking to grow this and their BT Vision TV service by next quarter following the launch of Sky Sports packages on the service, making it a more attractive product to bundle with the phone and other services.
BT Openreach revenue declined by 8% but 4% of that is due to a change in the internal trading model. Capital expenditure increase by 16% due to the investment in the fibre roll out that they are undertaking. July saw a major milestone in this of 1.5m premises passed by fibre-to-the-cabinet services and an average of 100,000 new premises added per week, granting access to faster 40meg broadband.
"We have made an acceptable start to the year, delivering improved financial results while investing in the future of the business. In TV we are offering great value premium sports packages and can now compete on a more even playing field. We hit the first major milestone in our fibre roll out, passing over 1.5m premises, and we are now running at an average rate of around 100,000 premises passed every week. In BT Global Services we continue to win significant contracts due to our ability to deliver a world class service to our customers."
Ian Livingston, (Chief Executive) BT Group PLC
TalkTalk are expected to release their Q1 financial results tomorrow.
According to AndruC's link in the other article:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10799069 Virgin actually made a loss, so whilst its great if Virgin revenue is up its pretty pointless if they aren't making a profit. BT certainly have work to do but at least at the moment they are turning a profit, that can't last forever though I'm sure a lot of that is down to cost savings which can't go on forever.