Telewest To Develop Cable-Unique Services

UK cable company, Telewest Communications, today said that it has an aggressive roll-out plan for introducing cable products that will differentiate it from competitors in the pay-TV market, Sky Digital and ONdigital. Announcing the company’s third quarter financial results, chief executive Tony Illsley said: “We have an accelerated timetable for introducing cable unique products, which will increasingly differentiate Telewest from satellite and terrestrial competitors.”

Telewest launched its Active Digital brand at the end of last month (see Telewest Launches Digital Service), behind rival Cable & Wireless Communications, but ahead of NTL. “The advertising and promotional spend we have committed to our digital launch positions us well in our franchise areas,” says Illsley. Telewest has connected 35% of its ‘passed’ homes to cable and/or telephony service, giving an active customer base of 1.4 million homes or 3.5 million consumers.

The company is also hoping to launch the country’s first true video-on-demand service, with trials scheduled for the first quarter of 2000. Currently, Telewest offers 50 channels of near video-on-demand, where films begin broadcasting every 15 minutes.

Telewest’s Q3 loss came in at £356.6 million, up a huge 78.2% on Q3 1998’s pre-tax losses. Group turnover was up 58.3% to £576.2 million. Losses per share rose from 12.3p to 16.6p. However, these figures are in line with market expectations and shares were up by 19p (6.7%) at 4:00pm today.

Telewest Communications: 01483 750 900