ntl, the nation's largest cable operator, has posted its fourth consecutive quarter of subscriber growth and set a new target of 4m subscribers by 2008.

In the second quarter of this year, ntl's home division added 60,500 net customers, and announced that it had recently passed the 3m customer milestone. ARPU, the measure of the average revenue per user, remained relatively flat compared to the same period last year and actually declined from the first quarter. ntl attributed this to a usual second-quarter drop-off and some billing adjustments. The cableco does however expect ARPU to return to growth in the upcoming quarters, not least because of a TV price rise taking effect from September 1 to cover an increase in programming carriage costs charged by Sky.

Broadband continued to be a strong impetus behind growth at the company through the second quarter. The company now has over 1m broadband subscribers, with 6,800 new customers taking advantage of a 60 day free trial. The company says it expects "most" of them to become paying subscribers.

On the financials, ntl posted revenues of £584.4m in Q2 2004, against £551.3m for the same period last year. The operating loss for the quarter was £7m, compared to £51m for Q2 2003.