News Page for: British SKY Broadcasting, BSY (graph)

 

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1
15th May 2000
 BSkyB signed up 190,000 subscribers for its digital service in the 1st quarter of 2000. This is their highest quarterly performance to date. It is also impressive because it covers the period immediately after Christmas, normally a slow time for pay-TV.
2
15th June 2000
 FT: BBC lost battle to televise highlights of Premier League matches to ITV. The auction also saw BSkyB retain its hold on rights to televise live football matches while NTL won rights to show pay per view games. BSkyB emerged as the highest bidder for the package of 66 live games with an offer worth £1.1bn over 3 years. BSkyBs bid suprised observers who had been expecting that the company would be forced to pay more than £1.5bn to hang on to the rights that it has controlled since 1992.
3
22 JULY 2000
 Daily Mail: BSKYB Took control of 80% of OPEN, the interactive TV platform by buying out its partners HSBC and MATSUSHITA. This valued Open at £1.1bn., believed to be good value cos BSY is Opens main operating platform. Open is expected to break even in 2002. Results are due Wednesday 26th July. Currently bidding for Sports Internet @ £7.3925 per share, current price £7.30. Total bid value £294.98m
4
10th Aug 2000
 COM) 26/07/00 09:20: STOCKWATCH: BSkyB shares in demand as digital strategy remains on track STOCKWATCH: BSkyB shares in demand as digital strategy remains on track LONDON (AFX) - Shares in British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC enjoyed a fairly bright opening after the satellite broadcaster confirmed its digital strategy was on track and full-year losses were in line with expectations. At 9.00 am, BSkyB shares were 13 pence, or 1 pct, higher at 1,250 pence. House broker CSFB was particularly pleased by the group's subscriber news. Chief executive Tony Ball confirmed the group expects to hit 5 mln digital subscribers by the end of the year. "Total DTH subscribers at 4.513 mln were ahead of our projected 4.360 mln, indicating strong subscriber growth in the quarter to June (357,000 net additions), taking the total net adds for the year to over 1 mln," CSFB said. The analogue/digital is slightly better than expected, CSFB said, with 930,000 subscribers compared to a projected 1.044 mln. BSkyB confirmed earlier that it is to switch off its analogue signal in June next year, some six months earlier than planned, because of the high digital take-up. CSFB said the target is "not only achievable, but also beatable." In terms of the financials, BSkyB's revenues and EBIT were better than CSFB's forecasts. BSkyB, which has over 9 mln subscribers to its channels on various platforms, saw losses in the year to June 30 of 262.9 mln stg, though this was an improvement on last year's 388.7 mln. After stripping out 120 mln stg worth of exceptional charges, pretax losses were 142.9 mln, in line with analysts' expectations of 128-165 mln stg. ABN Amro has also reiterated its 'buy' stance on the stock and set an 1,840 pence price target, dealers said. However Credit Lyonnais Laing has reiterated its 'sell' position, dealers said. pp/ak Money Guru found news on Sky's digital decision: British Sky Broadcasting announced its full year results to 30 June 2000 today. The figures revealed substantial losses from digital activities, but encouraging increases in digital subscriber numbers. The company also confirmed that it intends to switch off its analogue signal in June next year. Pretax losses in the year were £262.9m, an improvement on the previous year's £388.7m loss. Excluding £120m worth of exceptional charges, pretax losses were £142.9m – a result that was broadly in line with analysts' expectations. The group said that 3.6m of its subscribers (almost 80 per cent of its DTH base) is now digital. Digital sales as at July 25 were 3.8m. The group’s churn rate (a measure of the number of customers who signed up but then fail to stay with the group) has fallen to 10.5 per cent, and encouragingly, BskyB revealed that the digital churn rate is only 3.5 per cent
5
10th Aug 2000.
 The street: BSkyB (BSY:LSE) (Board) remains one of the great gambles of the market. The capital expenditure is just extraordinary - cash is pouring into the digital-TV operation, the Open interactive TV venture, video-on-demand and a host of other techie launches. The company's dominant position in pay-TV is virtually secure. OnDigital, the Carlton Communications (CCM:LSE) (Board) and Granada (GAA:LSE) (Board) joint venture, is a viable business but it is doomed to be the also-ran of the market in the face of Sky's package. Nor did BSkyB have to stretch itself to secure another deal for Premiership football rights. The exciting bit - and the bit that makes BSkyB a fascinating stock - is interactive TV. The market research at this stage is virtually guesswork but the hunch says that interactive could be very big news. There is a percentage of the population - and it could be a large percentage - which would rather bank, shop and play games on a television screen than on a PC. In the end the television and the PC may be on a convergence course, but it could be the television that has more fun on the journey. The fact is that BSkyB's ability to read consumers' tastes is tried and tested. It's not a company to bet against when the media landscape is changing rapidly.
6
12th Aug 2000
 FT: Current takover bid for Sports Internet, value of bid per share: £6.66, market price: £6.725, Pre-bid price £ 7.725, value of bid £265m82.
7
1 Oct 2000

FT: dropped 35p to £10.41 on concerns that tracker funds will sell because of the planned changes to the way the FTSE International calculates its weightings.

FTSE International confirmed at the close of play on Thursday that from June 2001, it will calculate weightings on the number of shares freely available in the market, rather than the market cap of a company.

BSY will have its rating cut by around 60% because News International, its US parent Co. holds around 38% of BSY.

It was suggested yesterday that the media group could see around 110m (about 6%) shares sold before the balance returned.

8
13th Oct 2000
 FT: The government yesterday said it would allow BSKYB, Europe's second-biggest pay-TV operator, to take sole control of British Interactive Broadcasting which operates OPEN, the interactive TV service. However, BSB must promise it will provide clean feeds of its premium TV channels such as Sky News, and Sky Sports to rival distributors.
9

14th Oct 2000

 FT: BSKYB Reports that Vivendi of France would sell its 23% stake in the Co. to get ist merger with Canada's Seagram cleared by the EU. This could depress the share price which has already suffered along with TMT stocks. Vivendi owns Canal+ SA, Europes largest pay-TV platform and has been considering exchanging its BSB stake for one in Rupert Murdochs Sky Global Networks. The EC has waved Vivendi's Jean-Marie Messier & Seagram's Edgar Bronfman Jr. ahead without bothering to extend its investigation. The new condition - one Vivendi offered - that it dispose of its financial stake in BSB looks odd. It does give the Commission an opportunity to look tough. The Commission also has to approve the sale of the BSB shares. It has not ruled out Vivendi swapping BSB shares for News Corps proposed Sky Global shares, though it would be strange if it allowed it. That uncertainty continues. That the Commission is so unconcerned about Vivendi's plans might suggest that its merger is not creating much market power. Vivendi had already agreed that only half of "first window" rights of Universal films will go to Vivendi's Canal+ and that digital music rights will not be exclusive to Vizzavi, its internet platform. That raises the question of how much of the forecast revenue synergies will materialise. The revenue model is unclear, as are the revenue benefits from buying Seagram rather than licensing content.
10
4th Nov 2000
 Reported that it was nearly 2 months ahead of its plan to sign up 5m subscribers by the end of the year. Also announced that its churn rate was down from 14.2% to 9.8%. on an annualised basis. The figures suggest BSY is extending its lead over rivals such as On Digital in the UK, but at a cost. Revenues increased by 33% to £520m, but as operating, marketing and programming costs all increased, pre-tax losses widened to £123.6m, against a deficit of £13.6m for the same period last year. The losses were particularly stretched by the contributions from BSY's share of Kirch PayTV, the German operator, as well as Open, the interactive TV shopping service. BSY also reported that the number of cable subscribers to Sky channels had slipped, making a slight dent in cable revenues. Results:- 3months to Sep 30th, Turnover - £563.6m (£401.4m), Pre-tax profit - £123.6L (£13.6L), EPS - 6.7pL (0.7pL). No divi.
11
14 MAR 2001
 Shares in Radio First have been suspended pending an announcement following a report in today's Financial Times that BSkyB is set to take a minority stake in AIM-listed media company. The paper says the deal, likely to be announced soon, would be the first step in the creation of a national digital network around Premiership football clubs. It is thought Radio First would secure carriage for its audio services on Sky Digital, which has 4.7m subscribers, in exchange for about 20% of its equity. It would also pave the way for Radio First to proceed with a placing to raise £3.64m at 80p per share, the FT adds. The deal reflects a growing belief at BSkyB in the value of digital radio, the paper says. Many of BSkyB's subscribers use their set-top boxes to tune into audio services. Last month, BSkyB took a 20% stake in Digital News Network to create greater cross-promotion between digital radio and multi-channel TV, it points out. The move also builds on the group's strategy of developing media services around football clubs. Radio First, founded in 1995 by former Talk Radio managing director John Aumonier, has exclusive joint ventures with Chelsea, Southampton, Derby County and Aston Villa for their local digital audio rights for 12 years. It has plans for similar deals with a further four clubs, the paper says.
12
14 MAR 2001
 BSkyB says it has secured a new £300m revolving credit facility, which has helped to boost its syndicated bank credit facilities to £1.05bn. The company said syndication of the new facility was launched on February 9 and closed this week. It said the transaction was substantially oversubscribed. "BSkyB originally sought a new facility of £250 million but, given the significant level of support and the degree of oversubscription, decided in consultation with the arrangers to increase the size of the facility to £300m," BSkyB said. It added that the new facility would provide a greater level of headroom and further financial flexibility.