Sharewatch: BSkyB Boosted Ahead Of Financial Results

Satellite giant BSkyB saw a boost to its share price yesterday, rising by 0.85% to close at 532p ahead of today’s first quarter results.

The company announced subscriber growth of 62,000 in the quarter to over 7.4 million, however, the growth remains short of Sky’s self-set target of 100,000 new subscribers to its standard service per quarter. Total revenue increased by 11% to £940 million, with the company’s advanced PVR based Sky Plus service adding 77,000 to its subscriber base.

The broadcaster recently unveiled a number of high-tech products designed to attract more subscribers to its services, including a device to allow digital television to be enjoyed anywhere using an iPod-like portable video player (see Sky Introduces New Products At MRG Conference).

Elsewhere, radio and magazine publisher Emap rose by 1.28% to close at 834p yesterday. The company recently announced that it will bid for Manchester’s last remaining FM radio licence, with a proposal to bring its rock-focussed Kerrang! radio station to the region (see Kerrang Joins Race For Manchester Radio Licence).

Meanwhile, Maiden remained steady at 227˝p as the outdoor contractor signed up to standardised campaign positing times and copy delivery dates in an attempt to make it easier for advertisers to invest money in the medium (see Outdoor Contractors Standardise Campaign Posting Times).

The FTSE 100 made improved progress yesterday, adding 42.4 points to close at 4,776.9 while the FTSE 250 added 40.0 points to close at 6,535.7.

The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were: