NTL

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Template:Infobox Company) | 

company_slogan = More Choice Better Value|
foundation = 1992 (as Telewest Communications, Inc.) |
location = Operational HQ: Hook, Hampshire, UK|
key_people = James Mooney, Chairman
Simon Duffy, Executive Vice Chairman 
Stephen Burch, Chief Executive |
num_employees = 22.500 (2005)|
revenue = $6.10 billion (2005)|
industry = Cable Communications|
products = Cable Television
Broadband
Telephone|
homepage = www.ntl.com

}} NTL Incorporated is a U.S.-listed British company providing cable services (internet, telephone and television) prodominantly in the United Kingdom. The company is the result of the merger of the UK's two major cable companies, NTL Holdings and Telewest Global. The combined company is the dominant cable operator in the UK.

The new company is better able to compete with the Sky Digital platform in the pay television market, and against BT (and BT-provided ADSL services) in the voice telephone and broadband markets. NTL also produces content through its Flextech subsidiary. The ratio of revenue between residential and business services was 78% to 22% respectively in 2005.

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History

Telewest was founded in 1992 as Telewest Communications which was a joint venture between TCI of the United States and also US West.

NTL was establised in 1993 as International CableTel by Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal, the founders of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc. (sold to Airtouch in 1996). CableTel was founded to take advantage of the deregulation of the UK cable business. Franchises were acquired covering the London area and parts of Northern Ireland Scotland and Wales.

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NTL name

In 1996 CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL), the privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network. In 1998 CableTel adopted NTL as its new name.

The company spent heavily on both expanding its network and acquiring rivals. Its UK network is built of a 7,800 km fibre backbone and has the potential to reach 8.4 million residential homes and around 610,000 businesses. The company began to expand outside of the UK in 2000, buying into markets on continental Europe and also in Ireland.

The collapse of the telecommunications markets from mid-2000 was a serious blow to the company. This, combined with NTL's rapid acquisition of local cable operators, led to severe integration problems. NTL, struggling to cope with rapid expansion and suffering from significant customer service problems, then had to contend with the creation in November 2002 of one of the UK's first consumer lobby groups, nthellworld with ntl:hell following shortly after.

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Bankruptcy protection

Devalued and struggling with debts of around $18bn NTL was forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2002 in order to organise a refinancing deal. The company did not emerge from protection until January 2003, having converted around $11bn of debt into shares in what was, technically, the largest debt default in US corporate history. The company's debt was reduced to $6.4bn. NTL itself was reorganised into NTL Inc. covering the UK and Irish markets and NTL Europe Inc. for the French, Swiss and German parts of the business. The NTL president, CEO and co-founder Barclay Knapp, as well as Stephen Carter, the MD and COO, were replaced.

Since exiting from Chapter 11, NTL has produced an operating profit. In 2004 plans were announced to split the Broadcast division off from the main company. In December of 2004 NTL sold their broadcast unit to a consortium led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group (MCG) for £1.27 billion. The division was renamed Arqiva in May 2005. This sale will allow NTL to focus on their 'core businesses' of providing communications packages and cable services.

NTL's debt was cut to £1.445 billion by July 2005, with an operating cashflow of £178 million. The company had 3.2 million customers who take at least one service from them, with the 1.4 million subscribers to broadband services making NTL the market leader.

In Autumn 2004, NTL purchased virgin.net. In January 2005, NTL started rolling out Video On Demand. The content is selected by NTL and covers most genres including music videos, children's programming and adult entertainment. This is an extension to the basic 'pay per view' services the company offered for Film and Sport content, and the new service allows customers to rewind, fast forward and pause content.

Despite NTL Ireland turning a profit, in May 2005, NTL sold their Dublin, Galway, and Waterford cable business, which they acquired in 1999 for €680 million from the Irish government, to UGC Europe (since renamed Liberty Global Europe) for €325(£222) million. This was after having spent in excess of €100 million on network infrastructure. MS Irish Cable Holdings, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, held the stake on UGC's behalf, until the deal receieved regulatory clearance. In December 2005 the regulatory clearance was received and NTL Ireland became a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Global Europe. As of March 2006 the NTL brand continues to be used in Ireland by Liberty. It is expected that the brand will be eventually replaced by UPC however.

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NTL/Telewest merger

Since late 2003 there was discussion of a merger between Telewest and NTL. Thanks to their geographically different areas NTL and Telewest co-operated in the past, such as directing potential customers who are outside their own areas. On October 3, 2005, NTL announced a USD$6 billion purchase of Telewest, creating one of the largest media companies in the UK. The merger agreement as it was structured would have left NTL having to negotiate with BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, due to a change of ownership clause written into the agreement for UKTV, a joint venture with Telewest's Flextech content division. To prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. The merger was completed on March 3, 2006, making the merged company the UK's second largest cable provider. Once this was completed, the combined company renamed itself to NTL Incorporated, with ex-NTL shareholders controlling 75% of the stock, and ex-Telewest shareholders 25%. Nine of the eleven directors of the new board will come from NTL, with two of them coming from Telewest.

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Virgin Mobile merger

In December 2005 it was announced that Virgin Mobile was in talks with NTL regarding a merger. The new company would be branded under the Virgin Group brand. A merger of Virgin and NTL would create the UK's first 'quadruple play' media company, bringing together TV, internet broadband, mobile phone and fixed-line phone services. Under the deal, Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson was understood to be planning to swap his controlling 72% stake in Virgin Mobile for a 14% holding in NTL, which would make the billionaire entrepreneur the biggest single shareholder in the combined group, and give him a share of future revenues. The original bid of £817 million ($1.4 billion) was rejected by Virgin Mobile's independent directors, who took the view that NTL's bid "undervalued the business". Sir Richard Branson is reported to be confident that a re-structured deal can be completed. The offer was increased in January 2006, to £961m, or 372p per share.

On April 4, 2006, NTL Incorporated announced a £962.4m recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. The deal, worth £962.4 million, allows the cable company to offer a 'quadruple play' service of television, telephony, broadband and mobile for the first time. According to reports, Branson has accepted a mix of shares and cash, making him a 10.7% shareholder of the combined company. Also included in the deal is a 30-year exclusive branding agreement that will see NTL adopt the Virgin name across its consumer operations.

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NTL Broadband

NTL offers broadband connections through Cable and ADSL. Cable is the most predominately used service and this is provided through SACMs (Stand-alone cable modems) and STBs (Set-top boxes).

Current speeds offered to ntl branded cable users are 1 Mbit/s, 2 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s. The 1 Mbit/s and 2 Mbit/s services are currently uncapped. The 10 Mbit/s service has a 75 GB cap on uploads and downloads combined. People who break the cap (after warnings) will be downgraded to an unlimited 512 kbit/s package. Current speeds offered to Telewest branded cable users are 2 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s. All services are currently uncapped.

For customers who do not live in cabled areas NTL offer an ADSL Broadband service through BT landlines. This is known as "NTL Freedom (Broadband)", the word Freedom is used in NTL literature to distinguish the service from the Cable Broadband service which is simply dubbed "NTL Broadband". NTL Freedom users are supplied with an ADSL modem for their PC and they receive 1 Mbit/s downstream and 256 kbit/s upstream. The service has unlimited usage (no bandwidth caps). This is fixed for all users and there are no different speeds available on this service. NTL Freedom, also bundle phone services via CPS (Carrier Pre-Select) to users of their ADSL Broadband service.

Broadband TV is a new Interactive service that is currently being tested across the NTL Digital Network after one year in development. The service allows for NTL Digital TV customers to have access to Interactive services that equal or out-perform those available on SKY, as the service is run from Servers at the customer's local head-end, therefore bypassing the need for the customers STB to do any of the hard work.

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External links

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