BSkyB: Slow sub growth expected
October 14, 2013
By Chris Forrester
BSkyB will reveal its Q1 numbers (to Sept 30) on October 17th, and is expected to reveal slower growth in overall subscriber numbers for its range of products. Investment bank Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, says it expects product growth to be some 595,000, and down from Q4’s 700,000 although ahead of last year’s 533,000 improvement.
The bank is assuming “broadband additions of 90,000 (market range 70,000 – 90,000) versus 119,000 in Q4 and 102,000 in Q1 2012/13. The linked telephony and line rental numbers are as a result also lower than Q4 at 120,000 each. On TV we have 35,000 adds in total, the same as Q2, with 5k ‘traditional’ pay TV adds (Sky won’t give this number) and 30,000 NOW TV. HD and Sky Go Extra should outpace this at 100,000 and 125,000 net adds.
However, the bank is also anticipating a rise in Churn to around 11 per cent.