NTL to rebrand as Virgin Media early next year

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) British cable operator NTL said on Wednesday it would rebrand itself Virgin Media following its acquisition of Virgin Mobile, as its third-quarter operating loss widened.

The cable TV, Internet and telephone service provider said its operating loss of 9.6 million pounds ($18.3 million), compared with a loss of 4.7 million pounds a year earlier, was due to increased restructuring charges.

Total revenue rose to 1.03 billion pounds from 482.7 million pounds a year earlier. It recorded a net loss of 37,300 customers in the quarter.

NTL said it could not precisely identify the cause of customers dropping their subscriptions, but said people moving out of its coverage area was one factor.

It warned that customer additions in the fourth quarter would be adversely affected by a change in its billing systems and by a low level of installations in the holiday season.

Cable ARPU -- annualised average revenue per user -- was up 27 pence at 42.48 pounds against the second quarter.

''On the day we are announcing that our new company name will become Virgin Media, I am pleased to announce continued improvement in our results,'' Chief Executive Steve Burch said in a statement.

The company said it experienced strongest growth in the number of broadband subscribers with gross additions of 265,000, an increase of 13 percent over the previous quarter.

Net additions in broadband were 78,100, down from 104,900 in the second quarter.

NTL, which merged with fellow cable provider Telewest to create a large-scale rival to satellite operator BSkyB, bought Virgin Mobile for $1.7 billion earlier this year.

The company said Virgin Media would exploit its ability to offer a ''quadplay'' of digital TV, broadband, mobile and home phone services.

NTL said it expected to be given fresh impetus from the rebranding as it said Virgin is one of the best known and most respected brands in Britain.

''Virgin Media will shake up the market by bringing the Virgin traditions of value for money, brilliant customer service and innovation to the world of entertainment and communications,'' Burch said.

''While work remains to be done between now and the re-brand, our decision to announce its name and logo today is a reflection of my confidence that we're well on the way to creating an organisation that can live up to this vision by consistently putting the consumer first.'' REUTERS DKS DB2003