NTL Ireland reports 25% rise in revenue

Cable television operator NTL Ireland reported a 25 per cent rise in revenues in the second quarter of 2003.

Cable television operator NTL Ireland reported a 25 per cent rise in revenues in the second quarter of 2003.

The figures reflect greater demand for its digital TV and a price increase introduced in January 2003.

NTL said it had about 362,400 customers by the end of June, and that digital TV customers (including MMDS customers)grew by some 8,500 to 53,300.

Average revenue, which is a key measure for telecom and cable operators, rose by about 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2003.

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NTL Ireland recently began on crackdown on late-paying customers, which it expects to lead to 15,000 customers being switched off in the second half of 2003.

NTL Ireland's parent company also announced today that its co-founder Mr Barclay Knapp would step down as chief executive and will be succeeded by current chief operating officer Mr Simon Duffy.

The British-based cable group reported a 38 per cent drop in its second quarter net loss to £159 million, helped by sharply lower interest payments following NTL's $11 billion debt-for-equity swap last year. Debt now stands at $6 billion, compared with NTL's market capitalisation of $2 billion.

NTL snapped up several companies in the late 1990s, when cable valuations were at their peak. But the stock market's collapse forced NTL to swap $11 billion worth of debt for shares last year, leaving its shareholders with nothing. NTL emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January.