NTL buyers plan to cut costs at cable firm

STAFF at NTL Ireland face an uncertain future after the cable TV operator’s new owner said it would strip costs from the company but that it was “too early to say” whether job losses would be involved.

US cable giant UGC, which published first-quarter results yesterday, said it expected to deliver “meaningful synergies” from its planned merger of NTL Ireland with Chorus, its other Irish cable business.

The €325 million deal, which was announced earlier this week, is subject to clearance from the Competition Authority. The deal, if approved, will give UGC control over cable TV networks in Dublin, Waterford and Galway, where NTL currently operates, as well as in Chorus’s strongholds of Cork and Limerick and other major cities and towns around the country such as Kilkenny, Clonmel and Naas.