Consumer revenue was £384.5 million ($726.8million), up 4.0 per cent over the same period last year. The increase in revenue reflects the acquisition of virgin.net and strong growth in broadband RGUs which increased by 112,900 (79,600 on-net) in the quarter and by 414,400 (296,100 on-net) compared to the same period last year.

Commenting on the results, Simon Duffy, Chief Executive Officer of ntl, said: “We have started the year with continued margin expansion, robust gross additions, improved customer churn and continued growth in our triple play customer penetration. Compared to the first quarter of last year, our OCF margins are
up nearly two points to 34.3 per cent. Gross additions of 195,100 and improved customer service – which have helped reduce churn to 1.4 per cent – resulted in total net additions of 58,100. Continued strong performance in gross additions and further improvements in churn should put us back on track for our
long-term on-net target of over 50,000 net customer additions per quarter from Q2 onwards, resulting in over 200,000 on-net customer additions this year.”

Also 3.24 million shares repurchased to date for a total of $215 million, Simon Duffy states:

“We have repurchased a total of 3.24 million shares in the open market at a cost of $215 million and yesterday concluded the sale of our operations in the Republic of Ireland for €325 million, reinforcing our focus on building our UK cable business. This activity leaves us well positioned for the next stage of our development.”

ntl state that the VOD (Video On Demand) service was successfully launched in Glasgow and Wales (Swansea and Cardiff) during the first quarter. ntl state they will be launching in three additional markets during the summer and expect to be in a total of 10 markets by year end.