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NTL earnings rise
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May 8, 2001: 3:00 a.m. ET
UK's largest cable-TV company boosts revenue and digital subscriber base
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LONDON (CNN) - The UK's largest cable television company NTL said on Tuesday first- quarter earnings rose 32 percent on cost savings and rising digital revenues.
NTL said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization increased more than expected to £86 million ($125 million) compared with £65 million in the final quarter of 2000.
NTL NTL (NLI: Research, Estimates) also posted a 6 percent rise in quarterly revenue to £622 million compared with £586 million pounds in the previous quarter, beating its own forecasts.
"In line with our stated strategy of focusing on raising revenues from existing customers, average revenue per user increased in the first quarter as a result of migrating customers to digital TV, increasing prices and upselling additional products and services," said Chief Executive Barclay Knapp.
Knapp said NTL was also on track to meet or exceed 2001 targets for £2.6 billion in revenue and EBITDA of £385 million. EBITDA shows the financial performance of companies that are heavily in debt.
NTL, which has its corporate base in New York, said at the end of the first quarter it had 757,300 digital subscribers, 26,300 cable modem subscribers and 7,800 new customers in the UK and Ireland.
The company said it expects to meet or exceed its 2001 targets of 1.25 million digital subscribers and 100,000 cable subscribers.
NTL said it had approximately £2.2 billion of funding in place at the end of 2000 to support the continued growth of the business.
NTL is one of the European cable companies that has held talks with AOL Time Warner (AOL: Research, Estimates) as the world's largest media company seeks access to European cable systems. AOL is the parent of CNN. 
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