Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
A bit of both, I think. NTL/Cabletel lashed out a lot of money on it's own cable but it also lashed out a lot on buying companies in other areas, and those companies were also heavily in debt because of their own cabling works.
|
There was many many companies around the UK and to be honest if it stayed that way, then there wouldn't be so many problems with revenue, NTL and Telewest kept spending money on acquiring other cable companies instead of spending the money it had on its exisiting areas and new builds in those areas.
Cable London (Joint venture between Telewest and Comcast)
Birmingham Cable (Joint venture between Telewest and Comcast)
General Cable (Acquired by Telewest)
North West Cable (Acquired by Telewest)
Yorkshire Cable (Acquired by General Cable later Telewest)
Eurobell (Acquired by Telewest)
BT Cable Television (Acquired by NTL)
Westminster Cable Television( Acquired by NTL from BT)
Encom (Acquired by BellCable Media later NTL)
Cable Corporation (Acquired by Telewest)
East Coast Cable (Acquired by NTL)
Telecential (Acquired by Comtel then NTL)
Comtel (Acquired by NTL
Comcast shares in Cable London and BC (Acquired by NTL)
Aberdeen Cable (Acquired by Atlantic Telecom) now dissolved
Videotron (acquired by Bellcable Media)
Nynex (Merged with Bellcable Media)
BellCable Media (Acquired by Cable and Wireless)
And before that many companies which existed that went belly up before even services began were around like Bolton Cablevision which formed Nynex.
They just can't keep spending money they haven't got!
Aberdeen Cable if NTL had any money left at the time, it probably would have been part of a similar deal as the Westminster and Milton Keynes situation as I think Aberdeen cable ran along BT ducts and cabling.
And not only that, NTL and Telewest bought all franchises that were no where near ready for Digital let alone broadband, and therefore had to spend millions on upgrading.