Full-year losses soar at BSkyB as subscriptions grow

LONDON - Shares in BSkyB climbed 5p this morning on the news that subscription numbers for its digital service continued to rise strongly and revenue per customer is ahead of target.

The broadcaster's share price, which reached a high of £11.97 in January, has lost 40% of its value this year. This morning they were up at 681.5p in London.

Subscriptions to Sky Digital grew 1.7m during the year to June 30, while its analogue customer base declined to 145,000 as the broadcaster pursues its aggressive campaign to encourage customers to switch to digital.

Churn has steadied at 10%, down slightly year-on-year and marginally up on the last quarter.

The broadcaster said that average revenue per user (Arpu) for Sky's core services have grown 7% to £302 a year. Total Arpu including the integration of British Interactive Broadcasting, which was behind interactive service Open, is ahead of target at £313 a year, including £11 from interactive services.

Revenues rose 25%, helped by a 12% increase in advertising revenues. This was driven by an increase in penetration of Sky channels to 5.76% from 5.28% last time.

Sky's increase in audience share, however, led to increased programming costs of £1.1m. The broadcaster has also upped its spend on sports by £10m and it paid out £336m on movies, up by £59m on the previous year's figure.

As a result of these costs and the fact that its share of Kirch pay-TV's losses was £116m this time, pre-tax losses almost doubled to £515m.

The broadcaster has reduced marketing costs by £3m to £378m, due to lower spending on above-the-line advertising and reduced set-top box costs.

BSkyB recently unveiled its next-generation digital box, which is a satellite receiver and personal video recorder. This will be available to customers for a flat fee of £12 a month.



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