NTL Ireland has reported a 25 per cent increase in turnover for the fourth quarter of 2002, with earnings from the Irish market of £4 million sterling (€5.8 million).
The Irish arm of NTL Inc produced €22 million in turnover for the quarter.
The 5.8 million of earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) represented a 33 per cent increase on the fourth quarter of 2001. In terms of the whole of 2002, the Irish operation chipped in 87 million in revenue, compared with €63 million in 2001.
The company once again denied the Irish operation was for sale, despite several media reports suggesting the contrary in recent weeks.
The company said a price increase for its cable television products helped to increase the average revenue per user by 20 per cent to €18.11 in the fourth quarter.
About 9,000 new digital customers were recruited in the final quarter, to bring the company's total digital customer base to 38,000. NTL Ireland has a total of 368,000 customers, with the majority paying for basic cable packages.
The proportion of customers who did not renew their subscription - known as the "churn" rate - was down to 8.3 per cent from 13.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2002.
While the figures would seem to suggest the company, in line with its worldwide parent, has turned the corner financially, the number of digital subscribers remains low compared with the 272,000 who have registered with Sky Digital. The two companies are the main competitors in the digital marketplace in Dublin.
The company said it was introducing a "more rigorous credit policy", which would mean disconnecting about 25,000 customers in 2003. It did not say what these customers owe the company.
NTL worldwide emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2002 and the chief executive of the parent company, Mr Barclay Knapp, said the company had turned the corner and was no longer "on a knife edge".
However, the company still reported an operating loss of $703 million (€651 million) for the three months ended December 31st, 2002.
As part of the Chapter 11 proceedings, £6.9 billion of debt was swapped for equity, but the company still has £4.1 billion of debt, but Mr Knapp described this as "manageable".
Since emerging from bankruptcy, NTL has appointed three board members to spearhead its recovery strategy.
Mr Knapp refused to comment yesterday about a possible merger with NTL rival Telewest, which reported a £2.2 billion loss last week.
NTL Ireland last week announced that Sky Sports customers must move to its digital platform because its analogue service would no longer be used to broadcast these channels.
Regulator ComReg said it had no role over the prices for "premium" services such as Sky Sports.
