BSkyB Confirms June Launch For Digital

BSkyB today announced that it expects its digital satellite service to launch in June of this year and said that it will serve a writ on Carlton for the £30 million it says the ITV company owes it.

The satellite broadcaster says that it is owed £60m following its withdrawal from the British Digital Broadcasting consortium, which also comprised Granada and Carlton. Granada has agreed to pay half of the £60m while Carlton has allegedly not agreed to do the same.

BSkyB also said that programming and marketing plans are at an advanced stage though “due to their commercially sensitive nature”, they will only be disclosed at a date closer to the launch. Orders for the set-top box hardware and software are also on track and have been confirmed so that initial quantities of boxes will be available in June 1998.

The company also revealed interim results for the second half of 1997, which show a drop in pre-tax profits of £5.1 million to £128.6 million while turnover jumped 20% to £691.8m.

Subscribers grew by 349,000 to 6.721 million and direct-to-home subscription revenue increased by £59.3m to £469.3m while cable subscriptions rose 33% to £110.2m.

Ad revenue increased by 34% to £90.2m and the broadcaster’s share of TV ad revenue is estimated to have risen to 6.8% from 5.5%

In terms of outlook BSkyB said that it expects subscriber growth over the next six months to slow down with the impending launch of digital and that next year’s operating profit will be broadly in line with the previous year. The company also said that in the next twelve months it is expected that its digital service will re-stimulate direct-to-home growth and drive subscription volumes accordingly.

BSkyB: 0171 705 3000