Media Week: Telewest and NTL expand reach of on-demand TV

When it comes to providing video-on-demand TV, there are two companies perfectly placed to provide it - NTL and Telewest. With their huge, and expensive cable network covering 15m or so homes in the UK, it could be just be what the cablecos need to sell their boxes. Couple it with a Sky+ style box and you're away - the box scoops up everything you want to watch, whilst the video on demand service catches anything you may have missed.

But there's a snag - they need to do it right, and they need to sell it right, flog it at the right price, and more importantly they need to hold on to customers - NTL hasn't been great on the old customer service front, and neither company has managed to beat Sky's message. And as for price, well that's not exactly their strong point either.

They also need to be fast because it won't take too long before the big gun that is BT to get in on the act - and BT has a far bigger network on which to roll out its service, and a far larger user base to flog it too.

And with a threat like that, video on demand might not be the saving grace the cablecos hope it will be.