Cable TV and telephony company, Telewest Communications, has reported an increase in the number of its television customers and a reduction in churn – the number of customer leaving the service.
During the first quarter of 1999, television penetration was up 2.5% points to 24.4% year on year, whilst churn fell back 7.5% points to 27.1%. “Overall we added nearly 29,000 net new television customers and over 24,000 net new residential telephony customers in the quarter,” said chief executive Tony Illsley.
Telewest is currently in discussions with rival UK cable operation, Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC). Along with NTL, these companies are now the only major players in the UK cable market following a long period of consolidation in the industry. It is expected that these companies will consolidate further, probably into one national brand, in order to compete more effective with BSkyB’s satellite pay-TV services.
Last week, software giant Microsoft took a 29.9% stake in Telewest. Microsoft also holds a 5% stake in NTL and this might expedite consolidation between these two groups. NTL recently acquired CableLink in Ireland, leapfrogging it ahead of Telewest to become the largest cable group in the UK and Ireland (see NTL Acquires Irish CableLink For £445m).
Telewest also reported revenue of £187.6 million for Q1, an increase of 16.4%, and pro-forma losses of £135 million for the combined group. The company is planning to launch its digital television service this autumn, behind CWC, which launches in July (see Digital TV To Cost CWC £60m) and NTL which plans to launch its DTV service during the summer.
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Telewest Communications: 01483 750 900
