Chris

Actually there's a lot more to it than that. Investor relations managers can't just go round talking the company up indiscriminately. If they talk it up too much, then the share price can be unduly influenced upwards. That might look good in the short term, but if the price is artificially high, then it won't take long for analysts to spot it and when the correction comes, the price can end up worse off than where it started. Apart from that, there are financial regulators who rule strictly on how you are allowed to put things when making announcements of this type, so these announcements are not all just spin. (They are not for the average Joe on the street either, as it happens; quarterly trading statements are really aimed at the City and major institutional investors). And of course, senior executives who can make more out of share deals than they do with their wage packet stand to lose out big time if the share price fails to perform in the long term.

In this case, I think it is right to draw attention to the fact that this quarter, the company has made its first ever operating profit. This is highly significant because it is the first time it has ever been proven that ntl's consumer service is even capable of being profitable. This piece of information is of far greater significance to the long-term performance of the company and its share price than is the fact that it is still making a net loss. Everyone knows ntl is making a net loss, and they know why. They also know that, provided the company is more careful in future than it has been in the past, this will not be the situation forever. Having said that, Kits has a point. It will be interesting when the company produces its Interim report in three months to see whether the higher pricing and bribery by the retentions department have plunged ntl back into operating loss or if there is a genuine upward trend in business.