BSkyB Group announces quarterly results

The British Sky Broadcasting Group have announced a strong market performance for the six months up to December 31, 2001.
In a statement, the company declared that it "continues to deliver growth on all fronts" and can now boast that the compliment of BSkyB viewers UK and Irish television-owning homes stands at 44 per cent.
The number of BSkyB direct-to-home satellite subscribers has increased by 218,000 over the last quarter to 5.7 million viewers. However, with greater expansion comes greater operating expenditure, and so subscriber management costs rose by 25 per cent.
The group also recorded a growth of £121 million in programme costs and a £69 million increase in the Premier League contract succeeded in swelling the sports production budget by £80 million to £273 million. Nonetheless, BSkyB revenues currently stand at over £1.3 billion – showing an increase of 22 per cent and operating profits (before goodwill and exceptionals) rise by 39 per cent to £70 million.
Tony Ball, Chief Executive of British Sky Broadcasting Group plc, said: "The last six months have seen another strong operating performance. We have over 5.7 million subscribers, revenue per subscriber is growing by 10 per cent a year and we are now generating positive free cashflow. Sky's investment in digital has peaked and we now look forward to reaping the benefit."
BSkyB enjoyed a successful last quarter in spite of the group's £985 million "goodwill" writing off in relation to its KirchPayTV investment.
In response to the KirchPayTV investment, Mr Ball said: "We have today announced the write-off of the goodwill of £985 million relating to our investment in KirchPayTV. However, we remain focused on protecting our rights and securing full value from our put option."
The company also announced that Dr Dieter Hahn, a non-executive director, has resigned with immediate effect from the board of directors.
BSkyB Group, www.sky.com
(GMcG)