BSkyB have reported a higher than expected profit in the year to June 30th, and added another 81,000 subscribers. However, investors registered disappointment at these latest subscriber numbers and consequently, shares fell 7%.
After-tax profits were UK£322 million (€488 million), up 75% on the previous year, sales were UK£3.6 billion (€5.4 billion), a 15% rise.
The company is hoping to have 10 million subscribers by 2010, from 7.4 million currently. BSkyB are planning to spend UK£450 million on upgrading infrastructure during that period. BSkyB are keen to get 25% of new subscribers onto their Sky+ package. To achieve this, they will be increasing their marketing budget by 40% next year.
BskyB’s modest increase in subscriber numbers has possibly been affected by rival free-to-air service Freeview, which does not require a monthly subscription. It is likely that this will have a continuing affect as free-to-air services develop and improve their channel offerings.
BskyB’s latest results
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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