Giving the matter some thought, either the NTL guy was telling the truth, or NTL are "testing the water" as to how many people are p*ssed off with stopping the binaries (so they can decide whether to drop them for good, SO BE SURE YOU COMPLAIN), or he was lying (or misinformed) and they are gone (doing this to customers isnt very good though, so probably unlikely).
If you call the status line (0800 052 4315), there is no mention of the binaries, the NTL guy was surprised about this as he was sure there would be one. There are a few messages about a lot of upgrades to Broadband today (Tuesday) and some email upgrades too.
NTL have never talked about the newsgroups much anyhow, they probably dont want any more people leeching off the binaries, so I think we can put no information about the status down to NTL being covert about the newsgroups existance, I know many NTL users who leech 24/7 off the binaries.
Planning ahead in case they dont come back -
http://www.news.astraweb.com seems the cheapest unlimited download news service (US$10 pm, thats about £5.50), does any user know if its OK? Is it as least as good as NTL was? (NTL was never amazing, but I was always happy with it).
A refresh this morning on a binary newsgroup brought up some random files posted on the 19th BTW.
Can more people call the helpline (0845 650 0121) and ask about the binaries (they wont know what you are talking about, you have to be pushy (but polite) until they put you through to someone who knows about this), just to remind them we are here and we havent forgotten the binaries (in case they are testing the water as I have already suggested).
Lets see whats happening in 36 hours!
Thanx