Advanced Television

Forecast: BSkyB new subs tumble

October 17, 2011

By Chris Forrester

Nomura Securities are predicting that BSkyB’s summer subscriber net additions will tumble, down about 84 per cent from last year’s 96,000 to only about 15,000. The true position will emerge on Wednesday (October 19th) when Sky’s results for the quarter-year to September 30th are announced.

Laurie Davison and Mark Braley at Deutsche Bank, in their note to clients, also predicted a “dull” increase of around 2.6 per cent in BSkyB’s pay-TV customers.

Given the deepening financial crisis in the UK perhaps the only surprise is that despite the economic gloom Sky has been able to show any growth. Other top-up subscriptions are also said to be slowing, including those converting to Sky HD (growth down 60 per cent) and Sky Broadband (down about 40 per cent).

However, there’s not likely to be anything negative about BSkyB’s pre-tax profits, expected to be up around 20 per cent to around £280 million for the quarter.

 

 

 

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