VIRGIN Media, the broadband, TV and phones group, delivered “solid financial progress” in its third quarter results, it said today.

The business, which employs 450 office staff in Knowsley and has a further 200 in the field in the Liverpool area, announced its results for the nine months and three months to September 30 today.

Nine month revenues were up 3.1% to £3.06bn and 2.8% to £1.03bn for the quarter.

Income before tax was £196.4m in the nine months, compared with £46.1m in 2011, and £124.3m in the three months, against a loss of £73.7m last year.

In the three months net cable customers grew by 39,5000, compared with 6,300 last year, reducing its churn, or loss of customers, from 1.7% to 1.4%.

The customer base for its TiVo service – Virgin Media’s digital video recorder – increased by 205,900 to 1.14m, making up 30% of its TV base, which also added 52,200 paying customers.

Superfast broadband customers also increased, by 452,900, to 1.8m, representing 42% of the group’s broadband base.

Mobile phone revenues were down 3.1% to £137m in the quarter, but businesses helped cushion the blow with a 9.5% increase in revenues for the division to £169m.

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett said: “This has been a quarter where continued strong demand for superfast broadband and TiVo has led to lower churn and meaningful cable customer growth.

“Combined with progress in our business division, we have again delivered solid financial progress.”