VS Series
BT v Virgin Media O2
BT, which owns Openreach, against the joint venture behind O2 and Virgin Media. How do their accounts compare?
BT leads on all five measures that matter most: turnover, pre-tax profit, profit margin, growth and net assets. BT is the biggest by turnover at £19,654m, against £10,113m at Virgin Media O2. BT keeps more of every £100 it takes, £10.60 as pre-tax profit.
The year ends are close enough to compare like for like.
Accounts compared: BT to Mar 2026 · Virgin Media O2 to Dec 2025
Who they are
BT
British Telecommunications Limited · 01800000British Telecommunications is the main operating company of BT Group, providing broadband, mobile, TV and phone services to homes and businesses in the UK.In brief: broadband, mobile and TV · consumer and business contracts · owns Openreach · owned by BT GroupFull profile →Virgin Media O2
Vmed O2 UK Limited · 12580944Virgin Media O2 provides mobile, broadband, TV and home phone services to UK households and businesses.In brief: telecoms · mobile, broadband and TV · O2 and Virgin Media brands · Liberty Global and Telefónica joint ventureFull profile →The Numbers
The leader on each measure is marked. Movements are against each company's own prior year. Pre-tax profit is filed except where marked (est.).
Category winners
Biggest by turnover
BT
£19,654m
Most pre-tax profit
BT
£2,084m
Highest profit margin
BT
10.6%
Fastest-growing turnover
BT
-3.5%
Biggest employer
Virgin Media O2
17,058 staff
Highest pay per head
Virgin Media O2
£72,000
Most turnover per head
Virgin Media O2
£593,000
Largest net assets
BT
£24,990m
Most cash
Virgin Media O2
£574m
How they differ
How do BT and Virgin Media O2 make their money differently?
BT is a retailer and a network landlord in one. It sells broadband and mobile to homes and businesses, and it owns Openreach, which sells access to its fixed network to BT and to more than 700 other providers and earns just over half of BT's adjusted EBITDA. Virgin Media O2 takes 55% of its revenue from mobile, runs its own fixed and mobile networks, and is owned 50:50 by Liberty Global and Telefónica. In 2025 a £1bn goodwill write-down, which it linked to UK market and economic conditions, and the cost of its debt pushed it into a loss.
This panel reads: BT, British Telecommunications plc, accounts to March 2026; Virgin Media O2, VMED O2 UK Limited, accounts to December 2025. The numbers above use each company's latest figures on Spark Intel, which can be a different year.
How they make it
48%of revenue from Consumer customers
Four units. Consumer (£9,454m) and Business (£5,041m) sell to customers; International serves multinationals (£2,113m); Openreach rents out the fixed network (£3,025m from outside BT).
“Openreach independently manages our fixed access network, connecting millions of UK homes, businesses, public sites and mobile towers.”
55%of revenue from mobile
Mobile is £5,580m, of which handsets £1,178m. Fixed broadband, TV and landlines, including business and wholesale lines, are £3,913m; other revenue, including building the nexfibre network, £620m.
“This decrease is primarily due to a reduction in low margin handset revenue.”
Who they sell to
8.2mConsumer broadband connections
Consumer has 8.2 million broadband and 15.7 million mobile connections. Converged households grew to 41% of BT's broadband base, from 38%.
“We reach 13.1 million households, which is more than 45% of all UK homes.”
46.7mmobile connections, up 2.3%
Mobile connections rose on internet-of-things and wholesale lines, while contract and prepaid fell. Fixed-line customers slipped to 5.8 million.
“This was driven by heightened competitive intensity during 2025.”
How they build the network
62%of capital spending in Openreach (£3,171m)
Openreach takes most of the capital spending, building full fibre: 22.9 million premises passed and 8.8 million connected, up from 6.5 million.
“This was up 6% year-on-year reflecting higher FTTP provisioning and build activity.”
£2,089madded to property and equipment
Full fibre reaches 8.3 million premises. Its cash flow shows only £1,417m of capital spending, because kit bought on vendor financing or leases is paid for later, as debt.
“The capital expenditures we report in our consolidated statements of cash flows do not include amounts that are financed under capital-related vendor financing or lease arrangements.”
Where the profit comes from
51%of adjusted EBITDA from Openreach
Openreach made £4,225m of BT's £8,229m adjusted EBITDA, from £6,190m of sales, more than half of them to BT's own units.
“Income relates predominantly to Openreach's leases of fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure to external communications providers”
£1,022mgoodwill written off
Adjusted EBITDA held at £3,880m. After £3,046m of depreciation and amortisation, a goodwill write-down and £1,474m of net finance costs, including losses on currency hedges, it made a loss.
“negatively affected by the ongoing deterioration of the fixed-line broadband market”
Who takes the cash
£790mof pension deficit payments
Its pension schemes still had a deficit to fill. Its dividend to its parent, BT Group Investments Limited, inside BT Group, almost doubled on the year before.
“The IAS 19 gross deficit has decreased to £4.2bn at 31 March 2026”
£21.2bnof borrowing, before leases
Owned 50:50 by Liberty Global and Telefónica, who took £378m in December 2025. Their agreement targets debt of 4 to 5 times adjusted EBITDA.
“to distribute all unrestricted cash to the Shareholders as soon as reasonably practicable following each quarterly period”
Not disclosed
Revenue split between the BT, EE and Plusnet brands. BT Group's strategy is in BT Group plc's annual report, which is not part of these accounts.
Contract and prepaid mobile split, average revenue per customer, churn, and what it pays its owners for services and the O2 brand on their own.
Pages quoted: BT pp. 3, 4, 5, 7, 36, 41, 42, 45; Virgin Media O2 pp. 3, 27, 28, 30, 32, 34, 107, 112, 114, 125, 127, 129, 133, 134, 159.
BT's figures are the group accounts of British Telecommunications plc, BT Group plc's principal trading subsidiary, including Openreach and the International unit; its unit revenues are adjusted revenue from external customers, before specific items. The Companies House register now shows that company as British Telecommunications Limited. Virgin Media O2's are the group accounts of VMED O2 UK Limited; of the £483m of dividends in the ledger, £378m went to its two owners and £105m to minority shareholders in its subsidiaries (VMO2 p. 111). The two adjusted EBITDA figures are defined differently: BT's is before specific items, and from 2025 Virgin Media O2's 'includes Opex Costs to Capture' (VMO2 p. 169). Connection counts differ too: BT's 15.7 million mobile connections are its Consumer unit's; Virgin Media O2's 46.7 million include internet-of-things and wholesale connections. Percentages are our arithmetic from the pages cited.
Sources: British Telecommunications plc, Annual Report and Financial Statements 2026; VMED O2 UK Limited, Annual Report and Consolidated Financial Statements 2025. Page numbers are the documents' own.
The Takeaway
- BT converts the most of its turnover. Of every £100, £10.60 reaches pre-tax profit, against a loss of £17.34 at Virgin Media O2.
- BT is the largest on the top line, £19,654m of turnover, 1.9x Virgin Media O2's £10,113m.
- Turnover fell at both companies. BT fell least, -3.5% on its own prior year.
- Virgin Media O2 is the biggest employer with 17,058 people; Virgin Media O2 pays the most per head, an average staff cost of about £72,000.
- BT has the largest balance sheet, net assets of £24,990m, while Virgin Media O2 holds the most cash at £574m.
Who keeps the most of every £100 of sales?
BT keeps the most: £10.60 of every £100 of turnover becomes pre-tax profit. Virgin Media O2 does worst, losing £17.34.
Financing bites hardest at Virgin Media O2: £22.66 of every £100 goes on interest.
Every profit figure here is the one the company filed.
The chart splits each company's turnover into £100: what goes on people, on interest and on everything else, and what is left as profit.
Out of every £100 of turnover
Each column is £100 of that company's own turnover, so companies of any size compare on one scale; the figures are pounds out of each £100, not millions. Companies run from the best margin to the worst. Payroll is staff costs, financing is interest paid, other running costs are everything else, and profit is pre-tax profit, filed or estimated as marked in the table. A loss is not an extra cost: it is the part of the costs that runs past the £100 line, marked with a red bracket. Hover over any segment for its figure.
Who is the biggest, and does the comparison hold?
By turnover the order is BT (£19,654m), Virgin Media O2 (£10,113m).
By headcount, Virgin Media O2 leads with 17,058 employees.
The accounting periods all end within 3 months of each other. All are on the same filing basis.
Turnover on the latest filing
Whose turnover fell least?
Turnover fell at both companies. BT fell least, -3.5% on its own prior year, against Virgin Media O2 (-5.3%).
Turnover change on each company's own prior year
Who employs the most, who pays the most, and who brings in the most per head?
Virgin Media O2 employs the most, 17,058 people.
Virgin Media O2 has the highest average staff cost, about £72,000 a head.
Virgin Media O2 brings in the most turnover per employee, about £593,000. It says as much about the business model as the workforce: a marketplace or a wholesaler needs far fewer people per pound than a restaurant or a gym.
Who owns each one?
Ownership as recorded on the Companies House register of people with significant control, in the bands the register uses.
Held by Bt Group Investments Limited
A company recorded as a person with significant control. 24 outstanding charges on the register.
Who owns BT →
Vmed O2 UK Limited · 12580944Held by Liberty Global Europe 2 Limited
A company recorded as a person with significant control. 1 outstanding charge on the register.
Who owns Virgin Media O2 →
What does the full ledger show?
| Measure | BT | Virgin Media O2 |
|---|---|---|
| Registered name | BRITISH TELECOMMUNICATIONS LIMITED | VMED O2 UK LIMITED |
| Company number | 01800000 | 12580944 |
| Incorporated | 1984 | 2020 |
| Accounts filed | 26 June 2026 | 4 May 2026 |
| Turnover, prior year | £20,358m | £10,681m |
| Pre-tax profit, prior year | £2,061m | £2m |
| Staff costs | £4,540m | £1,235m |
| Payroll share of turnover | 23.1% | 12.2% |
| Employees, prior year | 91 | 15,932 |
| Dividends paid | £1,500m | £483m |
| Charges outstanding | 24 | 1 |
A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d; a zero in a filing is treated as not disclosed. Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, above that to the nearest million.
BT v Virgin Media O2: common questions
How do BT and Virgin Media O2 make their money differently?
BT and Virgin Media O2 are built differently. BT sells broadband and mobile to homes and businesses and also owns Openreach, which supplies network services to BT and to more than 700 other providers. In the year to March 2026 Openreach had £6,190m of sales, £3,165m of them to other parts of BT, and made £4,225m of BT's £8,229m adjusted EBITDA; it also took £3,171m of BT's £5,127m of capital spending, building full fibre that now passes 22.9 million premises. BT's dividend to its parent company almost doubled. Virgin Media O2, owned 50:50 by Liberty Global and Telefónica, took £5,580m of its 2025 revenue from mobile and £3,913m from fixed services, with 46.7 million mobile connections and 5.8 million fixed-line customers. Its adjusted EBITDA was £3,880m, almost unchanged, but a £1,022m goodwill write-off, which it put down mainly to UK market and economic conditions, £3,046m of depreciation and amortisation and £1,474m of net finance costs turned that into a loss. It has £21.2bn of borrowing before leases, its owners' agreement requires spare cash to be paid out each quarter, and it paid them £378m in December 2025.
Who is the biggest of BT or Virgin Media O2?
BT, with turnover of £19,654m in the year to March 2026.
Which makes the most profit?
BT: £2,084m pre-tax in the year to March 2026.
Which employs the most people?
Virgin Media O2, with 17,058 employees in its latest accounts.
BT or Virgin Media O2: which is bigger?
BT, with turnover of £19,654m against £10,113m at Virgin Media O2 on their latest filings. On margin, BT keeps more of each £100 as pre-tax profit. The full head to head is in the VS Series. Read the VS page →
Where do these figures come from?
Each company's latest accounts filed at Companies House. Each links to its full Spark Intel profile, which names the filing it comes from.
Deep dive: what story does Virgin Media O2's money tell? →
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