Sparked by its battle with BskyB over channel availability, Virgin Media are losing customers across the board, pushing revenues down.

 

Virgin have admitted to losing over 45,000 customer in the first quarter of this year, pushing revenues for the three month period to just over £1bn, a  5% loss. The company said the churn rate stood at 1.6% per month.

Since its merger with NTL:Telewest, Virgin has been arguing with Sky over pricing of channels, which have since been withdrawn.

The company said that so far the impact of Sky’s decision had been limited, but added that it would be felt increasingly in coming months.

"We have taken action to mitigate the impact of the channels’ withdrawal through our competitively priced consumer propositions," Virgin said in a statement.

"We therefore believe the overall churn impact to be within our expectations."

Virgin have increased broadband internet subscribers by 87,900 in the three month period, taking its total client numbers to 3.15 million, as well as adding 36,100 new TV clients. However, Virgin have lost 63,400 phone subscribers.

Virgin’s average revenue per customer has fallen from £42.82 to £42.75, a sign that they may be offering discounted rates to retain their exsiting customer base.