KEY POINTS:
It may be getting a bit of flack for repeating movies ad nauseum on its secondary movie channels, but pay television company Sky TV has had no trouble raking in hefty profits.
The private media operator today reported a 29 per cent rise in its June year net profit on better subscriber numbers and higher revenue.
The Rupert Murdoch-controlled company said net profit rose to $77.8 million from $60.1m a year ago.
It lifted its final dividend to 5 cents per share from 4cps in 2006.
Shares in Sky, around 44 per cent controlled by Mr Murdoch's News Corp, closed yesterday on $5.45. It has lost 16.3 per cent so far this year, compared to a 2.4 per cent fall in the benchmark NZX-50 index.
Trading revenue rose 12.7 per cent to $618m and pre-tax operating profit rose 31 per cent to $117.8m.
Earnings per share rose to 20.01cps from 15.46cps.
Chief executive John Fellet said Sky had had an excellent year with gains across all key areas and a small reduction in "churn", where subscribers quit.
Sky's free-to-air channel Prime continued to grow its share of the television audience.
Sky is now in 44.5 per cent of New Zealand homes. Its subscriber base grew by 6.6 per cent to a new high of 711,211. This is made up of 529,830 residential digital subscribers (74 per cent), 53,679 residential UHF subscribers (8 per cent), 113,961 wholesale subscribers (16 per cent) and 13,741 (2 per cent) commercial and other subscribers.
- NZPA
