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[NTL LETTERHEAD]
NTL ANNOUNCES OPERATING STATISTICS FOR SECOND QUARTER 2000
REVENUE GENERATING UNITS EXCEED 8 MILLION
RECORD CUSTOMER GROWTH IN CONSUMER DIVISION
'ORIGINAL NTL' FRANCHISES REACH 50% PENETRATION
ACQUIRED COMCAST UK, COMTEL & DIAMOND FRANCHISES ACHIEVE 40% PENETRATION
New York, New York (August 3, 2000) - NTL Incorporated (NASDAQ and EASDAQ: NTLI)
announced today its preliminary operating statistics for its residential
services for the quarter ended June 30, 2000. The Company expects to release its
full quarter-end financial results on August 9th, 2000, following the market
close, and will host a conference call the following morning.
Commenting on the Company's progress, Barclay Knapp, Chief Executive Officer,
said:
"We are extremely proud of this quarter's operating performance, particularly of
the passing of yet another operating milestone. The second quarter was the most
successful in our history for adding subscribers, with 74,200 net additions, in
a period where NTL was launching a new digital service and preparing for the
integration of ConsumerCo. In addition, the "Original NTL" franchises have
turned in their 18th consecutive quarter of increased penetration to 49.7% and
our Teeside franchise leads the Company with 63.7% customer penetration. We've
taken great care and effort during the last 18 months in nurturing the Comcast
UK, ComTel and Diamond acquisitions and are very proud to have exceeded 40%
customer penetration.
"ConsumerCo is fundamentally sound with approximately 1.2 million cable
telephony customers, over 2.6 million RGUs and 29% customer penetration. The
Company presents challenges that are similar to those which we experienced in
previous acquisitions. The roadmap we created from the integration of Comcast
UK, Comtel and Diamond, namely, the immediate focus on areas most affecting
customer churn, will serve us well with ConsumerCo. We therefore expect to see
similar gains in penetration at ConsumerCo over the same time periods.
"The roll-out of digital cable television continues to be a success. We are
targeting approximately 500,000 subscribers by year-end, up from approximately
230,000 as of the close of the second quarter.
"Another driver for the consumer business is ntlworld. Following our
announcement in March, the request for service had been overwhelming and we are
rapidly catching up with demand on this extremely popular service. As a result
of the offer and proforma for our recently announced
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August 3, 2000
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transaction with Virgin Net, NTL will be the 3rd largest ISP in the United
Kingdom with more than 1 million subscribers.
"With approximately 4.5 million cable telephony customers and over 8 million
revenue generating units we are the largest broadband communications provider in
the UK, Ireland and Switzerland. We believe tremendous opportunities await us as
we apply our knowledge from previous acquisitions towards integrating recent and
future acquisitions and from realizing economies as we expand our network across
Europe."
OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
RESIDENTIAL TELECOMS AND TELEVISION SERVICES
The following table shows the cable television and telephony customer statistics
for NTL:
CABLE TELEVISION AND TELEPHONY CUSTOMERS AS OF JUNE 30, 2000
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"Original" UK and Ireland UK and Ireland Continental NTL
NTL(1) (Pre CWC)(2) (Post CWC)(3) Europe(4) Consolidated
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Homes in Franchise (5) 2,090,000 5,768,100 11,817,700 1,861,000 13,678,700
Homes passed 1,392,500 4,405,600 8,703,300 1,859,600 10,562,900
Homes marketed (Tel.) 1,199,500 3,273,800 7,321,500 0 7,321,500
Homes marketed (CATV) 1,199,500 3,901,000 7,948,700 1,668,100 9,616,800
Total customers (6) 596,200 1,881,500 3,055,300 1,428,800 4,484,100
Dual 550,400 1,022,300 1,822,200 0 1,822,200
Telephone-only (6) 21,300 315,800 556,600 0 556,600
Cable-only 24,500 543,400 676,500 1,428,800 2,105,300
Total RGUs(7) 1,146,600 2,903,800 4,877,500 1,428,800 6,306,300
Customer penetration 49.7% 48.2% 38.4% 85.7% 46.6%
RGU penetration 95.6% 74.4% 61.4% 85.7% 65.6%
Telephone penetration 47.7% 40.9% 32.5% n/a 32.5%
Cable penetration 47.9% 40.1% 31.4% 85.7% 40.8%
(1) Data for franchises which NTL has been developing since 1993
(2) Data for the following franchises: "Original NTL", Comcast UK, Diamond
Cable, ComTel, Cablelink and BT Cable
(3) Data for all of the Company's franchises in the United Kingdom and
Ireland
(4) Includes Cablecom (Switzerland) and the "1G Networks" (France).
Cablecom homes passed and homes marketed have been revised upward from
the prior quarter, however remain as a best estimate.
(5) UK and Ireland franchise home information from The Media Map Datafile
2000. Data for Switzerland and France is from internal estimates.
(6) Excludes approximately 450,000 off-net telephony customers and over 1.3
million Internet customers.
(7) An RGU is one cable television account or one telephone account; a dual
customer generates two RGUs.
Monthly churn was approximately 1.1% in the second quarter.
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The following table shows the cable television and telephony customer statistics
for "Original NTL":
CATV AND TELEPHONY CUSTOMERS FOR "ORIGINAL NTL"
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06/30/2000 03/31/2000 12/31/1999 12/31/1998 12/31/1997
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Total customers 596,200 572,200 552,900 471,000 321,300
Homes Marketed 1,199,500 1,171,300 1,145,600 1,064,600 810,000
Customer penetration 49.7% 48.9% 48.3% 44.2% 39.7%
RGU penetration 95.6% 94.0% 92.9% 85.0% 75.1%
Telephone penetration 47.7% 46.7% 46.2% 42.3% 37.3%
Cable penetration 47.9% 47.3% 46.8% 42.7% 37.8%
Incremental
Customer Penetration 85.1% 75.1% 101.1% 58.8% 44.7%
NTL continues its push towards our goal of 60-65% customer penetration, with
"Original NTL" leading the charge. NTL continues to have extremely low fault
rates, provide a high-level of customer service and offer our customers
compelling, bundled packages at attractive prices. Over the past 2-1/2 years
we've raised both telephony and cable penetration by over 10 percentage points
at "Original NTL" and recent incremental quarterly penetration stood at 85.1% as
word-of-mouth continues to attract new customers.
The following table shows the cable television and telephony customer statistics
for Comcast UK, ComTel and Diamond Cable, acquired in late 1998 to early 1999:
CATV AND TELEPHONY CUSTOMERS
(COMCAST UK, COMTEL AND DIAMOND)
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06/30/2000 12/31/1999 6/30/1999
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Total customers 861,200 799,700 739,700
Customer penetration 40.2% 37.4% 35.7%
RGU penetration 62.2% 57.2% 53.6%
Telephone penetration 36.9% 34.6% 32.6%
Cable penetration 26.4% 24.5% 22.8%
Within the last 12 months, NTL has completed the full integration and turnaround
of the above entities, by lowering churn and by increasing customer penetration
nearly 5 percentage points from 35.7% to 40.2%. The experience we've gained from
integrating these entities will be invaluable as we move forward with the
turnaround at ConsumerCo.
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The following table shows the Internet operating statistics for NTL:
INTERNET CUSTOMERS AS OF JUNE 30, 2000
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NTL
NTL DIRECT UK WHOLESALE SWITZERLAND COMBINED
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Total customers 375,900 768,900 160,900 1,305,700
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995: In addition to the historical information presented, this release also
includes certain forward-looking statements concerning the future development of
the business and subscriber growth. Such statements represent the Company's
reasonable judgment on the future and are based on assumptions and factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially. The Company assumes no
obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results,
changes in assumptions or changes in factors affecting such statements.
* * * * *
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
IN THE U.S.:
John F. Gregg, Senior Vice President - Chief Financial Officer
Richard J. Lubasch, Executive Vice President - General Counsel
Bret Richter, Vice President - Corporate Finance and Development
Erik Tamm, Investor Relations
(212) 906-8440
IN THE UK:
Alison Smith or Will Robson
+44-1252-752-000
or via e-mail at investor_relations@ntli.com