Revenues increase by 13% at NTL

Increased subscriber numbers brought third-quarter revenues at cable TV operator NTL Ireland close to €30 million, the company said yesterday.

NTL released figures showing that revenues in the three months to the end of September increased by 13 per cent to €29.9 million from €26.5 million during the same period in 2004.

Growth for the first nine months of the year was slower, with sales increasing by 9 per cent on the same period in 2004 to €86.3 million from €79.1 million.

The company did not reveal if it had made a profit in either the three-month or the nine-month period.

Its total number of residential customers grew by 15,000 to 358,700 in the third quarter of this year from 343,700 during the same period in 2004, an increase of 4 per cent.

The figures indicate that the main driver of this is digital television.

NTL Ireland grew the number of digital television subscribers in the third quarter of the year to 121,900 from 88,900 during the same period in 2004, an increase of 33,000.

It said that 18,000 of these had switched from its analogue service to the digital service, where numbers dropped to 236,800 at the end of September from 254,800 a year earlier.

This still left it with a net increase of 15,000 for the year.

The company said yesterday that a lot of the growth in customer numbers occurred during the three-month period itself.

Net growth in digital subscribers was 12,300 during the quarter that ended in September. NTL had overall net customer growth of 5,100 during that period, just over one third of the year-on-year increase.

The fact that many of its "new" digital subscribers are existing customers explains why the increase in this area outstripped the rate of expansion in the business as a whole.

It lost 8.8 per cent of its customers during the period, compared with 9.9 per cent during the third quarter of 2004. A company statement said this rate of attrition was normal.

NTL's broadband business continued to grow, adding 3,500 customers to 16,400 during the third quarter.

That was more than triple the 5,400 subscribers it had during the year period in 2004.