NTL Ireland and Chorus, the newly-merged Irish cable operations of US group Liberty Global, signed up an extra 26,800 Irish customers in the last quarter of 2005.

The new business was formed after Liberty Global acquired NTL Ireland for $325 million (€270 million) last year and combined it with its existing Irish cable operation, Chorus.

At the end of December, the new division had 601,800 subscribers, up 4.7 per cent from a combined 575,000 at the end of September, a Liberty spokesman said.

He said that Liberty, which retains the right to use the NTL name for a limited period of time, was looking at rebranding the Irish business, but it was too early to say what it would be called.

Liberty Global did not disclose revenues from its Irish operations yesterday but between them the two firms supply television and internet services to 22 of the 26 counties in the Republic.

The figures showed that the newly merged entity had 576,400 television customers in the Republic, including 141,000 digital television subscribers.

This makes it the largest television provider in the Republic, ahead of BSkyB which said last month that its subscriber numbers grew by 5.6 per cent to 393,000 in the last quarter of 2005.

Liberty Global said its broadband customers rose to 25,000 at the end of last year, from a combined 18,000 for the Chorus and NTL businesses at the end of September. Its telephone subscribers totalled a modest 400.

Overall, Liberty Global, which is controlled by US cable entrepreneur John Malone, reported a 28 per cent rise in revenues to $5.15 billion. But its net loss widened to $84 million from $14 million a year earlier.