As a regular follower of moneyam I know this bulletin board loves small shares but please consider BSkyB as it will launch a free-to-air service later this year, which will compete with Freeview. For a one off 150 you will be able to gain access to alomst 200 digital channels and have access to pay per view events with no monthly subscription. 27% of the population cannot get Freeview due to weak transmission and with only 43% population with sattelite or cable there is massive growth potential. (Shares June2004)
BSkyB"s recent figures showed subscriber numbers were 19000 down on expectations of 100000 for the last 3 months, but pre tax profits quadrupled. Expenditure of around 450m will be needed in the next 4 years to support growth.
At the current price of 485p on a PE of 16 the shares are sitting near their yearly low, I recently bought 514p and would aprreciate other peoples views, has this recent sell off been overdone ?

StockMarketWire.com
Shareholders at pay-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting (LON:BSY) have voted in favour of all the resolutions at today's AGM, allowing the company to commence a £500 million share buy-back programme.

Nomura reiterates reduce on British Sky Broadcasting, target raised from 850p to 870p.

StockMarketWire.com
British Sky Broadcasting has made a $350,000 equity investment in Jaunt, an innovative early-stage technology company based in Palo Alto, California, specialising in video capture and display.

This investment will provide Sky with additional insight into developments within the field.

Hoping to close the gap caused by the BT announcement a while back.

BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING GROUP PLC - SHARE BUYBACK
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (the "Company") confirms that further to yesterday's announcement, and in accordance with the authority granted by shareholders at the Company's Annual General Meeting on 22 November 2013 and pursuant to the agreement between the Company and 21st Century Fox UK Nominees Limited (formerly known as News Corporation) (and others) dated 25 July 2013 that it has completed the purchase of 18,573 shares of £0.50 pence each ("shares") from 21st Century Fox UK Nominees Limited for cancellation. The price paid by the Company was 823.9560 pence per share.

BSkyB part of EU probe into film licencing agreements

The European Union has opened an investigation into licensing agreements between major US film studios and European pay-TV broadcasters, including BSkyB, saying they may break EU anti-trust rules.


more...

Cheers for that skinny! It was all looking so good, with less shares in issue, sp climbing, gap being closed......;o)

:-)

Notice of Interim Results
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc will be announcing results for the six months ended 31 December 2013 via RNS, at 7.00 a.m. (GMT) on Thursday 30 January 2014.

press reports broadband link up with Vodaphone under discussion.

Quarterly results tomorrow. All depends on how much of an effect BT has had presumably?

Isn't that last weeks rumour news?

Interim Results Announcement

STRONG FIRST HALF WITH EXCELLENT GROWTH

Growth in paid-for products up 42%year on year
· 873,000 new paid-for subscription products in Q2

· High Definition and Broadband now in 5 million homes

· 36% of customers now take triple play, 534,000 more than a year ago

Leading in connected TV growth; investment driving returns
· Record growth in connected Sky+HD boxes, up 1 million in Q2 to 4.4 million

· Threefold increase in On Demand usage

· Sky Store transactional revenues up 100%

Extending leadership in content across all genres

· Major new partnership with HBO

· Landmark deal with ITV to include new drama channel exclusive to Sky

· Record audiences for new UK commissioned drama

· Sky Sports viewing at highest level for 6 years

Good financial performance in line with expectations

· Adjusted revenue1 up 8% to £3,751 million

· Adjusted EBITDA flat at £813 million despite investment in connected TV services and one-off step up in Premier League costs

· Adjusted basic earnings per share down 3.5% to 27.3 pence

· Interim dividend up 9% to 12.0 pence

The market seemed to like the figures. Up 3.5% so far. Perhaps it was just a case of them expecting worse.
"Satellite broadcaster BSkyB announced higher half-year revenue and a hike in its dividend, but blamed investment in on-demand TV services and higher costs of Premier League football rights for flat profits of 813m pounds."

Ex-divi 26th March 2014 (12p)

Barclays note today:
"1H14 results were solid (financials and KPIs slightly ahead) showing the resilience of the business model. After a 3% underperformance vs. the FTSE100 in 2013, we feel that the investment case is again hard to make, both on the bull and bear sides. Indeed, both sides have very valid arguments (see below). Consequently, we expect another year of performance close to the market (4% underperformance year todate).
Re-iterate Equal Weight with an unchanged 920p price target and unchanged forecasts. We are slightly below consensus (Zonefinance) and expect consensus to adjust towards our forecasts (£1,240m on operating profit vs. consensus at £1,260m).
The bull view - KPI and revenue growth continues to be solid while BSkyB and BT agree to a wholesale deal. This would lead to lower inflation than expected for the Premier League rights. This scenario should result in BSkyB making forecasts and, on this basis, the stock is inexpensive versus other FTSE names, especially taking into account a likely further buyback.
The bear view - BSkyB continues to spend their way to maintaining growth with marketing costs up significantly. BSkyB and BT do not agree to a wholesale deal and the Premier League rights see significant inflation leading to downgrades in the outer years. 1H 2014 financial results and KPIs slightly ahead – Revenues grew 6.3% to £3,757m, in line. EBITDA of £813m was flat and 2% ahead of our expectations. Operating profit declined 8.0% to £695m, 2% ahead of Barclays but in line with consensus. Headline diluted EPS fell 3.3% to 27.1p, 2% above our estimates. Total net adds were 106k (77k TV, 29k standalone). Broadband net adds were 110k (consensus 106k) and Telephony 140k (vs Barclays 146k) – encouraging given BT’s entrance into pay TV and marking a similar run rate to FY13. Churn was in line at 10.8%. ARPU was £570, below our £575."

Gap to 920p nearly closed.

Court of Appeal ruling on pay TV appeal
Sky notes today's Court of Appeal judgment on the various appeals against Ofcom's 2010 decision to impose a Wholesale Must Offer (WMO) obligation in respect of Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2.

Today's judgment means that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) will be asked to consider further an additional and very specific aspect of Ofcom's decision, in relation to the level of Sky's wholesale pricing.

This does not alter in any way the CAT's fundamental findings, overturning Ofcom, that Sky engaged constructively with other distributors over the supply of its premium sports channels, and that Virgin Media is able to compete effectively with Sky on the basis of Sky's rate card prices.

Sky continues to believe that Ofcom's 2010 decision is flawed and that the WMO obligation ought properly to be removed, and will continue to pursue all available options to achieve this aim.

StockMarketWire.com
Analysts at Berenberg Bank have stated that they believe BSkyB (LON:BSY) is 'stuck in a spiral of increasing costs', having recently signed large number of sports rights agreements in an attempt to block any further advancement by rival BT (LON:BT.A). The broker argues that the recent high stake / high price deals struck by BT have been used by rights owners as a stick to pressure Sky into paying inflated prices and, in some cases, forcing them into early renewals and / or extensions. It, therefore, comes as no surprise to note that analysts have retained their "sell" stock rating and 680 pence per share price target. In short, while these rights renewals make sense, they come at a cost, and having looked to make savings already (to offset the Premier League cost inflation that took effect from August 2013), it will be even harder to find further economies, Berenberg said in its note.

StockMarketWire.com
Westhouse Securities has downgraded its recommendation on BSkyB (LON:BSY) to "neutral" from "buy" on valuation grounds, given the shares have risen to within 8 per cent of its unchanged 985 pence a share target price. The broker pointed out that the share price has gained 12 per cent since the company released its interim results, on 30 January, and has outpaced the market by almost 15 per cent in the last three months. "We view its current valuation (15.8x / 9.5x FY2014E PE and EV/EBITDA ratios, respectively, 3.3% yield) as fair and have decided to moderate our recommendation from Buy to Neutral."