British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC results for nine months ended March 31, 1997.LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 1997--British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : BSY BSY Busy BSY British School of Yoga BSY Bit Sync BSY Busy Line ), the UK-based pay-television broadcasting group, today announced its results for the nine months ended March 31,1997. HIGHLIGHTS - Profit before tax up 21% to 215 million pounds (US$353 million)(a) - Revenues up 24% to 913 million pounds (US$1.5 billion) - Operating profit Operating profit (or loss) Revenue from a firm's regular activities less costs and expenses and before income deductions. operating profit See operating income. up 17% to 260 million pounds (US$425 million) - Earnings per share up 23% to 11.9p (19.5 cents); earnings per ADR ADR - Astra Digital Radio 117 cents(b) Total paying subscribers up 121,000 in the quarter to 6.2 million Digital satellite plans announced including the British Interactive Broadcasting consortium and orders for one million set top boxes Sam Chisholm, Chief Executive and Managing Director of BSkyB, said: "These results again confirm Sky's growth in all operations and provide the platform for the future as we lead the way into the digital era. We have announced today plans for the launch of digital satellite television in the UK - including interactive services - and the future for BSkyB can be described in one word 'exciting'." Nine Months Results In the nine months ended March 31, 1997 the company's profit before tax increased by 38 million pounds to 215 million pounds, (US$353 million) up 21% compared to the nine months to March 31, 1996. Operating revenues in the period rose by 24% to 913 million pounds (US$1.5 billion) with subscription revenues accounting for 84% of the total. Growth came from both direct-to-home ("DTH (Direct-To-Home) Typically refers to satellite TV broadcasting directly to a dish antenna on the roof of a house. See DBS. ") and cable subscriptions. Advertising continued its strong performance, with revenues up 34% year on year and these sales now represent 11% of total revenues. Operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales for the period of 653 million pounds (US$1.1 billion) were 27% higher than the prior period due largely to strong investment in the crucial area of programming. This has consolidated BSkyB's market leadership as broadcasting moves into the digital era. On February 12, 1997 3.6 million viewers watched the England vs. Italy World Cup football match, a record audience. An estimated further three million watched it in hotels and clubs. Operating profits rose 37 million pounds to 260 million pounds (US$425 million) and profits before tax increased 38 million pounds to 215 million pounds (US$353 million). The 5 million pounds increase in the company's share of the losses of associated undertakings largely reflects the start up costs of the new joint venture channels launched in the first half of the financial year. There was no tax charge for the quarter and the tax charge for the year to date relates to Advance Corporation Tax written off on the interim dividend. Earnings per share for the year to date were 11.9p (19.5 cents), a year on year increase of 23%. Total paying subscribers rose by 121,000 during the three months to March 31, 1997 (1996: 166,000) as the company continued to benefit from the growth in both DTH and cable distribution. Net DTH growth for the quarter was 44,000 (1996: 52,000) and total paying subscribers, including those in Eire, now stand at 6.2 million. The company today unveiled plans for the launch of satellite digital broadcast services. Orders have been placed with four manufacturers - Amstrad, Grundy-Hyundai, Matsushita and Pace - to produce one million set top boxes, along with the establishment of British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB). Digital satellite, to be launched in Spring 1998, with interactive services later in the year, will offer significantly enhanced viewing: better picture and sound quality, flexible access to existing channels, new thematic channels, near video on demand and pay per view. BIB, an independent company created to deliver digital interactive services to viewers in the UK, will be owned 32.5% by both BSkyB and British Telecom The telephone and communications carrier that provides services in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It used to be a division of the British Post Office, but was privatized in 1984 under Margaret Thatcher's administration. , 20% by Midland Bank Midland Bank was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. and 15% by Matsushita Electric. BIB is expected to require shareholder funding of 265 million pounds and to break-even after five years. The new company will provide the technological infrastructure for these services and subsidize digital satellite set top boxes capable of receiving BIB's services. The subsidy will allow the boxes to retail at less than 200 pounds. British Interactive Broadcasting will complement Sky's other digital initiative, British Digital Broadcasting (BDB BDB Berkeley Database BdB Bundesverband Deutscher Banken (association of German banks) BDB Badly Drawn Boy (musician) BDB Brown-Driver-Briggs (Hebrew lexicon) ), a joint venture company formed in January, 1997 by BSkyB, Carlton Communications and Granada Group. BDB has applied for the licenses to operate three digital terrestrial television Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV or DTT) is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture and sound using aerial broadcasts to a conventional antenna (or aerial) instead of a satellite dish or licenses. If successful the shareholders will together invest a total of about 300 million pounds with a margin for contingencies. The ITC ITC (Brit) n abbr (= Independent Television Commission) → Fernseh-Aufsichtsgremium ITC n abbr (BRIT) (= Independent Television Commission) → is expected to announce the successful applicants by the end of June. On March 7, 1997 BSkyB and Kirch Gruppe announced that they had mutually agreed to terminate their Heads of Agreement Heads of Agreement A non-binding document outlining the main issues relevant to a tentative partnership agreement. Notes: It is the draft used by lawyers when drawing up the contract. It serves as a guideline for both parties before any documents are legalized. for the establishment of the DF1 pay television platform in Germany. BSkyB will continue to monitor investment opportunities in pay television operations across Europe. These accounts do not constitute statutory accounts and are unaudited. The figures for the year to June 30, 1996 have been extracted from the accounts of British Sky Broadcasting British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB — formerly two companies, Sky Television and BSB) is a company that operates Sky Digital, a subscription television service in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It produces TV content, and owns several TV channels. Group plc on which the auditors gave an unqualified opinion Unqualified opinion An independent auditor's opinion that a company's financial statements comply with accepted accounting procedures. Antithesis of qualified opinion. unqualified opinion See clean opinion. . British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is the leading provider of pay-television broadcasting services in the UK and Ireland, with over 6 million paying subscribers. Its operations include the operation and distribution of twelve wholly-owned television channels, as well as direct-to-home marketing of twenty-eight channels owned by third parties. BSkyB ADRs (each equal to six ordinary shares) trade on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. under the symbol BSY. BSkyB ordinary shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange London marketplace for securities. It was formed in 1773 by a group of stockbrokers who had been doing business informally in local coffeehouses. , and can be accessed on Reuters under the symbol BSY.L, and on Quotron and Bloomberg under the symbol BSY. Additional information is available on BSkyB's home page: http://www.sky.co.uk. (a) US dollar equivalents are provided for reader convenience at the March 31, 1997 exchange rate of 1 pound = $1.6373. (b) Each ADR represents six ordinary shares. For tabular information please call Taylor Rafferty at 212-889-4350. CONTACT: Richard Brooke British Sky Broadcasting plc 011-44-171-705-3000 or James P. Prout Taylor Rafferty Associates 212/889-4350 |
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