MediaGuardian.co.uk | City | NTL and Telewest put on subscriber weight

MediaGuardian.co.uk | City | NTL and Telewest put on subscriber weight: "NTL and Telewest put on subscriber weight

Chris Tryhorn, City correspondent
Tuesday February 28, 2006

Cable operators NTL and Telewest added more than 40,000 subscribers between them in the last three months of 2005, the companies said today.

But while Telewest's revenues rose nearly 30% in the period and its losses narrowed, NTL saw revenues fall and losses increase.

NTL and Telewest are preparing to merge later this year and, on Thursday, shareholders will vote on the deal which would create a media powerhouse with more than 5 million residential customers.

The merged company would have 2.8 million broadband subscribers, 3.3 million pay-TV customers and 4.3 million subscribers to its fixed-line telephony business.

The NTL chairman, Jim Mooney, indicated that the merged group would be keen to hang on to its content business - the Telewest subsidiary, Flextech - though not necessarily keeping hold of all of it."