DEALING with Britain’s cable companies, NTL and Telewest, is a pretty frustrating experience, and not just for customers. Since emerging from the trauma of near-bankruptcy over the past two years, the companies have continued to punch massively under their weight. They prefer to say nothing to the outside world other than through dry, quarterly results statements.

Much of this is down to the attitude of the company’s American shareholders and lawyers (both businesses are listed in the US), who keep company bosses in check to the point where they seem nervous to appear in public. Neither NTL nor Telewest champions the case for cable and the result, perhaps unsurprisingly, is that the pair are frequently ignored. This would seem remarkable, given that there are 2.7 million cable TV customers today.

With this strategy, no one should be surprised that Flextech, Telewest’s successful TV business, does not get a look in. Flextech owns 26 channels, including 11 in the UKTV joint venture with the BBC. The operation has always been smartly run, despite the corporate chaos taking place above it. Jane Lighting, who now runs Five, and current Flextech boss Lisa Opie have made smart acquisitions with limited budgets, building a successful entertainment offering that’s comfortably ahead of Sky’s output. Living TV, Flextech’s flagship, is where you will find first UK runs of Will & Grace as well as other American imports that missed the chequebook of Kevin Lygo over at Channel 4.

Now, after a long period of courtship, the two cable companies are planning to merge. To help to put the deal together, Telewest has been asked to value Flextech. This has, quite rightly, prompted speculation that the TV business could be sold, possibly for as much as £800 million. Simon Duffy, NTL’s chief executive, places little value in owning content, unless it is must-have sports rights. If he ends up as top dog in the wake of a merger, Flextech may well go.

That might not be bad for Flextech, which could do with a new owner willing to step up investment. But it would be a mistake for the cable industry.

In the US, major cable companies invest in their own channels. Having stations is a way of attracting consumers to pay-TV. Flextech’s offering, incidentally, is far more attractive to women, who can be put off by Sky’s perceived sports-dominated content. This would be a useful bargaining chip when dealing with other distribution channels. And it seems to show when you look at the performance of the two companies: Telewest has been adding TV subscribers since it emerged from bankruptcy, while NTL is virtually unchanged in the past year.

In an age where content and technology are becoming increasingly interdependent, a business with its foot in both camps makes good sense.

• Visit the BBC News website and compare it with the online offering from any newspaper and you will find little obvious difference. Except, that is, for the use of television and radio over at the Beeb. In this sense the internet erases the traditional border between the press and broadcast industries — and it is not clear that newspapers come off as winners.

  The arrival of broadband means that consumers will be able to — and increasingly demand to — watch television online, leaving newspaper websites looking embarrassingly two-dimensional. Already helped by substantial resources, BBC News is far ahead of commercially funded competitors. It is viewed by 24.8 million unique visitors, according to its own data. Recent ABC audits give The Guardian 10.1 million unique users a month, followed by The Times at 4.6 million, The Daily Telegraph 3.8 million and the Financial Times 3.6 million.

  In the era of rolling television news, broadcasters have a further advantage: they are used to producing news throughout the day. Morning newspapers have online teams, and multiple editions, but the mode of production is focused on delivering a paper once a day, albeit with changes between evening editions. Almost all newspaper journalists value online production less — you can’t carry it or keep it after all. Also it is hard for a single reporter to maintain high quality content, that goes beyond readily available news, consistently through the day.

  The question is: what will newspapers do in response to the broadcast challenge? One option is to buy television clips from the BBC’s competitors — a business that Reuters, in particular, is examining. But the other question to ask is: what is the role of the journalist of the future? Will it be enough just to produce words, or will reporters have to become part-presenter, part-writer as well?

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