Sky Posts Half-Year Loss

LONDON, February 6: For
the six months ended December 31, 2007, BSkyB’s revenues rose 11 percent to
£2.5 billion, but the platform recorded a loss of £112 million, versus the £246
million profit in the comparable period in 2006, as a result of the write-down
of its ITV investment.

Sky has been mandated to
reduce its stake in ITV from 17.9 percent to under 7.5 percent as a result of
competition concerns. The platform revealed last week that this would result in
an impairment charge of £343 million.

The platform also reported
a 25-percent drop in operating profit, to £295 million, as a result of
investments in future growth, the new Barclays Premier League contract, and the
loss of carriage fees and related advertising following Virgin Media’s
withdrawal of the basic Sky channels.

Nonetheless, the platform
recorded net customer growth of 167,000 to end the period with 8.832 million
subscribers. Subscriber gains were recorded across the company: Sky+ customers
rose by 16 percent to reach 3.13 million; multiroom subs increased 9 percent to
1.53 million; HD customers increased by 18 percent to 422,000; broadband
customers jumped 28 percent to 1.2 million; and telephony customers increased
by a record 35 percent to 915,000. Churn for the period fell from 11.3 percent
to 10 percent, and Sky delivered a record ARPU of £421, up from £411.

—By Mansha Daswani