REVENUES AT UPC Ireland, the company that owns cable TV operators NTL and Chorus, rose by 2.2 per cent year on year to €184.6 million in the nine months to the end of September.

Its operating cashflow – a measure of profitability – rose by 6.9 per cent to €73.9 million for the same period. In the third quarter – July to September – revenues rose by 1.1 per cent to €61.6 million, while its operating cashflow was up 3.4 per cent to €24.5 million. Figures released by UPC yesterday show it kept losing TV subscribers in the third quarter, but it made gains in broadband and telephone connections.

Commenting on its revenue performance, UPC Ireland chief executive Robert Dunn said sales growth was “not as strong as we would like”. But he added that sales picked up last month and that “we’ll see a stronger fourth quarter in terms of revenues”.

Mr Dunn said UPC’s TV revenues had been affected by the difficulties at Setanta Sports, which resulted in a number of customers cancelling their premium packages with the Irish broadcaster.

He said the uptake of ESPN’s premium sports packages was “better than expected”, but declined to give a figure.

At the end of September, UPC had 509,900 analogue and digital TV subscribers. This compared with 547,000 at the end of September 2008. It boosted its broadband customer base to 134,900 at the end of September, up from 94,000 a year earlier. In telephony, it more than doubled its subscriber numbers to 53,000 over the 12-month period.

Mr Dunn said the rate of customer loss in TV has slowed, due in part to the launch of high-definition services and a digital video recorder. It now has 338,000 subscribers to its digital TV service.

“We’re providing a better service and better quality service now,” he added.

UPC is spending up to €1 billion upgrading its network. This programme has two years to run.

UPC is the second biggest TV operator here behind satellite company Sky, which has over 600,000 Irish customers.