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 ?

Interim Results

EXCELLENT FIRST HALF WITH GOOD MOMENTUM ACROSS EXPANDED BUSINESS

Strong financial results
· Group revenue up 5%

· Operating profit up 16%

· Adjusted basic earnings per share of 27.1 pence

· Interim dividend of 12.30 pence per share

Growing customer demand across the group
· Significant outperformance in the UK and Ireland

o 204,000 new customers, the highest growth in nine years

o Over 1 million new products, the highest growth in four years

· Record growth in Germany and Austria with 214,000 new customers

· Strong performance in Italy with 30,000 new customers, the highest growth in 12 quarters

· Significant group-wide reduction in churn


Building for the future
· Strengthening drama slate: Fortitude launched in all five markets and 160 hours of original drama in production across the group

· Extending leadership in sport: exclusively live UK and Irish rights to The Open Championship

· Opening up OTT opportunity with streaming services in all our markets

· Growing new revenue streams: Sky Store revenues up 90% year on year

· Good progress with integration planning and synergies

"More Premier League games could be shown live on television - including matches kicking off at 3pm on Saturday - at a cheaper price in future after Ofcom opened an investigation into the way they are sold in the UK."

Too late they already are shown live at 3pm on a Saturday on the screen, and have been for some time.

James Murdoch has narrowly survived a rebellion by independent Sky shareholders to be re-elected as chair of the British satellite broadcaster. Just 51.6% backed Murdoch to stay in the top job. Concern among the dissenters centres around what they see as a potential conflict of interest, given his role as chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which is trying to buy Sky in an £11.7bn deal.