Losses at UK cable operator, Telewest Communications, rose by 13% to £187 million in the first quarter of the year, whilst turnover was flat year on year at £335 million.
Despite the increase in losses, the group did managed to become cash-flow positive in the quarter and also achieved record earnings of £105 million, up 15% on Q1 2002.
Telewest now has 310,000 broadband internet subscribers and this week announced that, including NTL homes, the UK has broken the one million cable broadband homes mark. Of this, Telewest commands a market share of around 80%.
Broadband has become Telewest’s key area of concentration; it now trades under the consumer name of Telewest Broadband. The group says that broadband customers tend to churn less and take the ‘triple play’ package of television, telephony and broadband cable services, generating a greater average revenue per user.
However, in the short term, this strategy has come at a cost: “The focus on broadband, cash generation and profitable customers meant that, as expected, we experienced customer losses during the quarter. Nevertheless, household churn has fallen and with the re-invigoration of our marketing, especially around TV, we plan to see a return to customer growth in the second half of the year,” said managing director Charles Burdick.
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