Blue sky for Sky Deutschland
October 18, 2012
By Chris Forrester
News Corp’s majority stake in Sky Deutschland looks as if it is starting to pay off. The past six months have seen Sky-D’s stock price rise from a typical €2 a share to today’s €3.34, and ahead of the broadcaster’s Q3 results announcement due on November 14th.
A note to investors from bankers Morgan Stanley says that, in its view, pay-TV has now “broken through” in Germany and that on November 14th the broadcaster will report its second successive quarterly EBITDA profit.
As to specifics, Morgan Stanley is expecting Sky-D to add 80,000 net additions (same period last year it added 98,000), hampered by the Bundesliga season starting three weeks late this year. The bank says HDTV subs continue to grow, and it expects 100,000 net new HD subs as well as a modest rise in ARPU (from €32.50, up 30c).