Date: 3rd November 2000

BSkyB Sends Mixed Messages To Investors


The News Corp-controlled BSkyB digital satellite service has succeeded in attracting more new customers than analysts had expected -- but at a stiff cost. The company today (Friday) said that it will reach its year-end target of 5 million customers ahead of schedule. However, in order to do so, it has had to spend heavily on sports and movie programming and offer free settop digital converter boxes. As a result, its fiscal first-quarter losses widened to $178.3 million from $18.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, analysts in Sydney said today that they expect News Corp to report a weak first quarter next week due to disappointing performance of the company's Fox TV network. A Merrill Lynch analyst said that he expects that the Fox unit will show a 35 percent decline in operating income because of low ratings, higher programming costs, and non-performing shows in syndication. In trading on the Australian stock exchange, News Corp closed A$1.07 higher to A$21.65.

Source: Studio Briefing