Now NTL on the brink

DMC

Media Guardian is reporting that NTL may go to the wall soon......

http://media.guardian.co.uk/city/story/0,7497,674900,00.html

NTL on the brink

"Cable group NTL has admitted it will go bust unless it receives a last-minute cash injection from new investors.

The company, which has almost 3m UK subscribers, said today it doesn't have enough money to keep the business running while it undertakes a massive £12bn restructuring operation.

It said it does not expect to complete the restructuring until June at the earliest, by which time it may have run out of cash. "

Charles Slane

You've got to wonder what effect ITV Digital's demise will have on the cable companies and Sky Digital.

On the one hand it means that there's a lot of people out there looking for a new provider of TV channels, but on the other hand ITV Digital's failure is sure to make investors worried about losing money in the TV business.

PacMan

It is a sad day for broadcasting. With ITV Digital, and now NTL and also Telewest have reported that they too need a lot of money to survive.

Over here we have NTL ,Chorus and the upcoming IT's TV.

If NTL Goes bust, does this affect the Irish operation? I assume that NTL Ireland is a seperate registered company.
Chorus has been on sale now for a long period of time. It looks like someone will come in and buy both companies and merge them into one. But look at the mess Chorus got into when it attempted this. All the small "Mickey Mouse" companies it took over eventually gave it a very bad name. My own experiences with them was I dont have a good word to say about their services.

icdg

Luckily NTL Communications (Ireland) Limited is a seperate limited company incorporated in Ireland, as indeed are Cablelink Galway Ltd and Cablelink Waterford Limited.

I would presume that the examiners/recievers/administrators who would be appointed to NTL Inc (registered in Delaware) would be able to sell them off. The analogue business of both is profitable, though whether the digital service could continue would be another matter.

But to whom: thats the £650m question. My guess is that there can only be two contenders: UPC and Liberty Media. The latter owns 50% of Chorus...

DMC

It ain't worth £650m now....

I'd say €150m would be the height of it.

icdg

Indeed, if even that...

PacMan

I live in a Chorus franchise area. I have noticed that a lot of their customers are moving to Sky digital. However I have friends who live in Chorus cable area, and when they moved house, instead of Chorus connecting them to the cable service, they installed the MMDS one. Is this the future of Chorus??? If they are pushing the MMDS model outside of the major cities (Cork/Limerick etc) what does this mean for ItsTV. For most people on the street Chorus MMDS and ItsTV will be the same. Aeriel on the roof, decoder box in the living room. This will be a major hurdle for the new terrestrial service to overcome. Not only introducing a new service and brand name to the market. But trying to convince potental customers that this new service (ItsTV) is not another name change for Chorus.
Where I live, we went through three name changes in eight months. Suir-Nore/Irish Multichannel/Chorus. Another broadcaster with the same Aeriel/decoder service will require a major campaign to convince people its *not* Chorus!!

icdg

BTW, there is some speculation Liberty will make a bid for the entire NTL Inc operation should it go into administration.

A merger for Chorus and NTL Ireland would almost certainly be on the cards then...

DMC

100 posts, congrats sir!

Originally posted by pacman:

. Not only introducing a new service and brand name to the market. But trying to convince potental customers that this new service (ItsTV) is not another name change for Chorus.

Well I think if the average customer takes a look at a new service in the local tv shop and sees digital quality pictures compared with the mono crap that comes from chorus.Then the boxes will walk out of the shops in my opinion.
Crucially "it's TV" would have to be competively priced and I've no doubt they will have an advertising budget.

I have never seen a tv advert for chorus digital-but then the reception is so bad Chorus customers probably wouldn't see it anyhow.
Getting back on topic-I think if the crowd that manage chorus get their hands on NTL in Ireland, it would be Goodnight Joe Doyle as we say around here.
Sky digital would think it's Christmas everyday as eventually, if chorus controlled NTL,they would standardise bad reception everywhere, bringing to the people of the Greater Dublin area a taste of what they have done down the country:eek:
Maybe thats what should happen...being cruel to be kind,perhaps it might be the only way for Ethain Doyle to see for herself what an awfull service Chorus provide.
mm