Liberty Global says its core European operations showed improving commercial momentum in Q4 2025, with Virgin Media O2, VodafoneZiggo and Telenet all delivering on their full-year guidance metrics despite what CEO Mike Fries described as “challenging competitive environments”.

Virgin Media O2 was presented as a story of network build continuing at pace while the company works through heavy UK promotional pressure. Liberty said the operator delivered a sequential improvement in broadband performance, with Q4 broadband net losses of 16,700. Virgin Media O2 ended the year with a full-fibre footprint of 8.3 million premises and a total gigabit footprint of 18.8 million, while 5G outdoor population coverage reached 87% (up 12 percentage points year on year).

In Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland is now over 70% through its fibre upgrade programme and remains on track to substantially complete the rollout in 2026. Wholesale momentum hit a record quarter, with wholesale broadband net adds of 6,400, offsetting softer consumer broadband (net losses of 3,400) in a more regulated switching environment.

In the Netherlands, VodafoneZiggo extended what Liberty called a “positive trajectory”, posting its best quarterly broadband performance in more than two years, helped by Black Friday trading and customer recontracting onto new “front book” tariffs. Q4 broadband net losses improved to 11,900, while mobile postpaid added 9,900 for a second consecutive quarter, driven by the hollandsnieuwe brand.

VodafoneZiggo also helped build the top-end speed narrative, completing 2.0 and 2.2 Gbps upgrades and positioning itself as the largest provider offering 2.0+ Gbps speeds in the Netherlands. For 2026, Liberty expects subscriber trends to keep improving, but highlighted a further EBITDA drag from repricing and a planned cumulative €100 million investment in resilience and reliability across opex and capex.

Belgian operator Telenet delivered the cleanest results of the quarter, with broadband net adds of 12,400 – its strongest in three years – and postpaid net adds of 2,900, supported by Q4 campaigns and continued FMC growth on the BASE brand. The quarter also underlined how content decisions flow into operator economics: Liberty noted revenue pressure linked to the non-renewal of Belgian football rights, which weighed on ARPU and certain programming revenues, even as it lowered programming costs.

Both VodafoneZiggo and Telenet are to be merged into a single holding company after Liberty Global agreed to buy Vodafone’s Ziggo stake ahead of 2027 listing.

Across the group, Liberty highlighted a $2.2 billion corporate cash position and continued refinancing progress, but the operational message was clear: the telecom portfolio is leaning on fibre upgrades, FMC and higher speed tiers to stabilise broadband trends while protecting cash generation.

The full article from Broadband TV News can be found HERE