VIRGIN Media today announced its first annual profit as customers of its TiVo entertainment platform doubled in the fourth quarter.
The business saw revenues rise by 3% in 2011 to £3.99bn compared with £3.87bn.
Income from continuing operations before tax was £93.1m compared with a loss in 2010 of £293.3m, and net income for the year of £75.9m contrasts with a £141.4m loss previously.
Chief executive Neil Berkett said today: "In a fast-changing industry and an uncertain economic environment, our 2011 results demonstrate the underlying resilience of Virgin Media's business model.
"Our strategy of focusing on customers who want more from the digital world is paying off. With the number of TiVo customers doubling in the final quarter of the year, our new TiVo service is attracting both new and existing customers."
TiVo combines live TV with on-demand and web. By the end of the year it had been installed in 435,100 households.
Mr Berkett added: "Demand for better broadband also continues to grow fast, with around half of new customers choosing superfast speeds.
"The combination of the best TV experience and the best broadband has enabled us to acquire more new customers in the quarter."
He said the group is also making strong progress in other areas: "We are successfully building contract mobile sales into cable homes and Virgin Media Business ended the year strongly as an increasingly important and growing contributor to the group."
Virgin Media has a number of Merseyside offices in Knowsley and at Liverpool's Albert Dock, but last October it confirmed the closure of its Edward Pavilion office on the dock by this summer in a cost-cutting exercise involving the shifting of its 'centre of excellence' to Swansea.
About 435 staff worked at the Albert Dock site but only 25 were directly employed by Virgin Media in HR and administration roles and they were offered relocation to the company's nearby Brunswick Business Park site.
The bulk of staff are employed by a recruitment agency and IT specialists and the company offered them the opportunity to relocate to South Wales.
A spokesman said today that a quarter of the 435 staff have been found alternative employment outside the company in Liverpool; 50 are staying with Virgin in the region; while a handful are moving to Swansea.
He added Virgin Media is also talking with companies in the Liverpool area in a bid to place staff with them in similar roles and is paying for skills training such as CV writing and interview techniques.
