NTL unveils digital TV service

UK cable company NTL has finally launched its digital TV service, aiming to sign up 300,000 subscribers by the end of this year.

The NTL Digital Plus service will initially be available only to customers in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales later this year, before rolling out across the rest of the UK next year.

The service, postponed from launching in September last year, will combine digital TV and NTL's telephony and internet services into a single package priced at £13 per month.

Barclay Knapp, chief executive and president of NTL, said the delay has enabled a more robust offering. "NTL will be the only company with an integrated interactive and internet service across the PC and TV set," he said.

Following the expected closure of the merger deal with Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), Knapp said NTL can extend the services to "the whole of the UK, over every device, anytime, anywhere".

NTL said it expects to complete the £8.2bn merger with CWC in Spring this year. The acquisition requires the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to give clearance for France Telecom to take a 25 per cent stake in NTL. The DTI is expected to make a decision in the next two weeks.

NTL Digital Plus will roll out to the South East, the Midlands, Teeside, Cambridge and Oxfordshire during the second quarter of this year and in Andover, Swindon, Stafford, Coventry, Warwick, West Herts, Thames Valley, Northants, Westminster and Milton Keynes in 2001.

NTL said the completion of the CWC merger will extend its reach to cover the key regions of the UK including Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast and most of London.