$re = '/(?:^|\n)\d+\n[\d\:\,\s\->]+/';
$str = '1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,700
to use 2 languages.
2
00:00:16,700 --> 00:00:19,600
I was saying that we are going to use 2 languages
3
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,700
...I myself will continue to speak because of time';
$subst = "\n";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php