Telewest

Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but on 3 March 2006 it merged with NTL to become NTL:Telewest; then on 8 February 2007 the combined company was rebranded as Virgin Media.

History

Telewest originated in Croydon in 1984 under the name "Croydon Cable". In 1988 United Cable of Denver, US, acquired Croydon Cable. Franchises extended the company scope in Edinburgh and the south-west and south-east of England. In 1989 United Cable merged with United Artists Cable International. In 1991 United Artists merged with their largest shareholder TCI ( Liberty Media), to form the largest cable operator in the US. TCI and US West announced a joint venture, and in 1992 the joint venture company became Telewest Communications. In 1995 Telewest merged with SBC Communications, adding franchises in the Midlands and North West serving 1.3 million homes.

During this time Telewest founded a consortium called Cable Internet. This consisted of the major cable companies in the UK working together a provide national Internet access service.

In 1998 Telewest announced a merger with General Cable, and acquired an outstanding interest in Birmingham Cable, adding a further 1.7 million franchise homes in Yorkshire, west London and Birmingham. Telewest purchased the remaining 50% stake in Cable London from NTL in 1999, adding 0.4 million franchise homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech, and in November extended its cable network with the acquisition of Eurobell, taking the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million. The company later became known as "Telewest Broadband" in a re-brand during 2001. The London FTSE then de-listed the consolidated shares. Major Telewest shareholders included Huff and Liberty Media (run by cable tycoon John Malone). Afterwards the company emerged from financial restructuring and completed a merger with NTL in 2006.

Operations

van in Plymouth, Devon.]] On its cable network, Telewest provided several residential services including:

Television

The majority of Telewest's television was digital. There were, however, areas that received an analogue service (Slough, Windsor and some other areas in West London). Telewest was in the process of converting the remaining analogue areas to digital and it was expected that the analogue service would cease in 2007.

The digital television service offered a number of different products including true video on demand, a PVR, and HDTV.

On Demand: On Demand (Formerly known as Teleport) was the brand name for Telewest's video on demand (VOD) service. The On Demand service launched in 2005. In contrast to Sky Digital which, due to technical limitations, is only able to provide near-VOD services, Teleport is a true VoD system. Users could search through a large library of programmes and watch them when they want to as part of their subscription. This library included a free 7-day watch again feature for TV programmes produced by the BBC, Channel 4 and Virgin Media Television (formerly known as Flextech). On Demand also offered movies that could be purchased and watched as many times as desired within a twenty four hour period. On Demand also offered HD content that worked in conjunction with the Telewest PVR (now renamed the V+).

HDTV Telewest was the first UK broadcaster to offer HDTV. Telewest's HDTV service launched several months earlier than that of their chief competitor, Sky Digital. Telewest's HD service initially comprised around 10–30 hours per week of video-on-demand content, with no linear high definition television channels available, although the early trial services of BBC HD and ITV HD were carried for a brief time. In January 2006 Telewest started to broadcast HD documentaries such as The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Pride, through their Teleport service, and later broadcast some movies in HD. Telewest had an agreement with both ITV and the BBC and claimed to be the only provider in the UK to offer all the 2006 World Cup matches in HD. In reality however half of the final group stage matches were not available in HD. Telewest's HD service was provided exclusively through their TV Drive box. Sky launched their HD service in May 2006, initially charging a £300 setup fee and an additional £10/month for several subscription HD channels, including HD versions of Sky One, Sky Movies and Sky Sports. Telewest charged a £75 setup fee and £10/month, although no subscription HD channels were offered. Telewest's fees however included the TV Drive recording service, equivalent to the recording features of the Sky+ service.

TV Drive was the name of Telewest's Digital Video Recorder (PVR) service. The product incorporated a 160 gigabyte hard drive as standard, meaning it was able to store around 80 hours of recorded programmes. This was in contrast to BSkyB's Sky+ service which offered only 80 gigabytes (40 hours). Similarly, Telewest's product incorporated three tuners while Sky's incorporated only two, meaning that Telewest's service could record two channels at the same time while watching a third. A few days ahead of the rebranding to Virgin Media, TV Drive was renamed V+.

Internet

Telewest's internet service called Blueyonder, formerly branded as Cable Internet, ran on the cable internet architecture and offered speeds of 2 Mbit/s, 4 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s downstream. The broadband service was 'uncapped', meaning that its use was unlimited and no extra charges were payable related to the amount of data downloaded. On 21 November 2006, after the merger with NTL, The Register reported that Subscriber Traffic Management was being trialled in areas in the north of England and was rolling out nationwide.

Blueyonder also provided dial-up internet services on a pay as you go or fixed monthly fee of £14.99 for unlimited use.

Telephone

Talk Unlimited

Talk Evenings and Weekends

Talk Weekends

Provided UK landline calls for up to an hour for a fixed fee monthly inclusive of line rental. Telewest were the first UK landline company to offer 'unlimited' calls to landlines for a fixed monthly fee.

Talk Mobile

UK mobile calls with 25% reduction from standard rates.

Talk International

Similar principle to Talk Mobile, with different reductions to different countries.

Talk Anywhere

200 Minutes 400 Minutes 800 Minutes

Telewest were the first landline company to offer a package of this kind as it included bundled minutes every month that could be carried over to the next. Including UK Mobiles, Landlines, Businesses with 0845 and 0870 International Mobiles & Landlines. It was available nationally, varying in price depending on the number of minutes.

Marketing

Over the years, Telewest has had a different number of strategies, with a solid corporate identity coming out in late 2005, to coincide with the 3 for £30 offer. The company had until 2007 the mascot Ellie West to promote its services.

References

External links

ntl:Telewest Business home page

Category:Cable television companies Category:Internet service providers of the United Kingdom Category:Media companies of the United Kingdom Category:Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Category:Media and communications in Croydon Category:Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Category:Companies established in 1984 Category:Companies based in London