NTL, Britain's largest cable company, said yesterday that 2001 would be a period of "getting down to business", after reporting a pre-tax loss of more than $3bn last year.

Stephen Carter, managing director of NTL in the UK, said 2000 had been "a seismic year" for the company, following the acquisitions of Cable & Wireless Communications and Cablecom in Switzerland plus the launch of digital, broadband and the company's internet service provider.

"We will be digesting the activity of 2000," he said. "We are now a business of scale, with customers and strong products."

The effective closure of the capital markets meant it made sense to focus on the company's existing assets, added chief executive Barclay Knapp. NTL has made 11 acquisitions in the UK in the past 18 months.

The company intends to put particular focus on London where it acquired franchises from Cable & Wireless and where take-up is as low as one in four homes passed by the network.

Mr Carter said NTL had now signed 600,000 homes to its digital television service and has set a target of 1.25m for the end of the year. Average revenue per digital subscriber is £42 against £36 on analogue and the company is planning to push through additional price increases soon.

NTL also expects to have 100,000-plus customers using its broadband service by the end of the year, up from the present 12,800. Revenues for the group during the year doubled to £1.9bn while Ebitda (earnings before interest taxation, depreciation and amortisation) climbed from £130m to £229m.

Around a third of the loss at pre-tax level was attributed to interest payments on NTL's debt of £10bn which is expected to peak at £13bn, Mr Knapp said. With much of the NTL network completed, capital expenditure, which peaked at £1.9bn last year, will fall to £1.3bn this year and £1bn next.