KEY POINTS:
Sky TV has posted a 25.5 per cent increase in full year net profit to $97.7 million, with viewership, subscriber numbers and average revenue per subscriber rising.
The result for the year to the end of June compared with $77.9m the year before and was achieved on operating revenue up 6.5 per cent to $658.8m.
A fully imputed final dividend of 7 cents per share is to be paid, giving a total dividend for the year of 14cps, compared to last year's total dividend of 10cps.
Sky chief executive John Fellet said viewership was up 8 per cent, while Sky's subscriber base grew by 5.3 per cent over the previous year, to a new high of 748,576. Sky was now in 46 per cent of New Zealand homes. As of yesterday, Sky's subscriber count was 752,405.
The free-to-air channel Prime performed well with an average 5.3 per cent share of the television audience, Fellet said.
During the last year six new channels were launched - Sky Sport Highlights, Sky Movies Greats, Crime and Investigation Network, Vibe, CNBC and Fashion TV - all of which contributed to an increase in Sky's share of total television viewing.
In June, Sky finished the upgrade on its Panorama Rd television station to a server based high definition (HD) multi channel facility, and last month started broadcasting in HD.
At the same time, Sky also launched a next generation personal video recorder, for which more than 13,000 orders had been taken.
Sky's position as the home of New Zealand sport had been enhanced with the launch of the new trans-Tasman netball competition in April, and the acquisition of the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Fellet said.
Sky shares closed yesterday at $5.03, having ranged between $6.02 and $4.06 in the past year.
Today they have fallen 6 cents, and are changing hands on the NZX at $4.97.
It has been an interesting year for Sky TV, with the launch of a rival digital platform Freeview. This alternative, that requires no monthly subscription, has been promoted heavily during the Olympics.
Free to air rivals at TVNZ and TV3 owner Mediaworks have been lobbying Government to impose restrictions on Sky's ability to bid for programmes.
Sky yesterday released an additional "cross submission" delivered to the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Sky says the free-to-air channels are trying to hobble Sky with more controls and prevent them from conducting "fair" competition.
Its rivals want to curb the growth of Sky through a Ministry for Culture and Heritage review of broadcasting regulations.
The free channels claim that among other market dominance issues, the cross-media ownership which means Sky owns both pay TV and free to air - gives Sky the power to shut them out of international programming deals.
They say the convergence of the broadcasting and telecommunication world gives Sky extra power.
Sky, which has dismissed the regulatory review as "a solution looking for a problem" said that free-to-air claims are inaccurate and misleading and aimed at "hobbling" fair competition from Sky.
- NZPA / HERALD ONLINE
