Telewest Goes Shopping For Sit-Up TV

Cable company, Telewest, has acquired Sit-Up TV for £194 million adding the company’s shopping channels to its television content businesses, which include Flextech and a 50% share in UKTV.

Sit-Up has become one of the country’s fastest growing home shopping businesses, rivaling QVC for market-leadership, generating £206 million in turnover last year, up from £119 million in 2003. The company’s channels currently air on Freeview, Sky and cable.

Telewest recently announced plans to transform its television service, giving consumers greater access to, and control over, digital programming. The company hopes to have achieved national rollout of its television on demand services to one million digital television customers by early 2006 (see Telewest On Demand To Reach 1 Million By 2006).

Reports earlier this week suggested that ntl and Telewest Global were preparing for a £5.5 billion merger, a move which would create a more unified rival to BSkyB’s dominant digital satellite service. Ntl are believed to be employing Goldman Sachs to advise on the planned merger (see Cable Giants Mull Merger To Tackle Sky).

According to the latest figures from media regulator, Ofcom, Sky commands a 30.8% share of all digital households in Britain, compared with 18.5% for Freeview and 10.1% for cable. However, many believe that the capacity and nature of cable networks will enable them to offer more advanced services than Sky in the future, making them a safer bet for the long-term.

Telewest: 0845 142 0000 www.telewest.co.uk