KEY POINTS:
Half-year net profit at Sky Network Television has jumped 40.3 per cent to $51.2 million.
The broadcasting company's operating revenue for the six months ending December 31 rose 8.3 per cent to $328.7 million, while operating profit shot up around 40 per cent to $25.4 million.
Chief executive
John Fellet said a decision on whether to proceed with a share buyback, endorsed by investors at its annual meeting in October, has been put off because of an "opportunity".
The proposal, which isn't a takeover, has about a 20 per cent chance of proceeding, he said, without giving details.
Subscriber numbers were up 5.5 per cent, with the monthly average revenue per subscriber up 2.8 per cent. The average Sky subscriber now pays $61.96 compared with $60.28 in the previous corresponding period. But the company said installation revenue has decreased, due to lower installation rates charged.
An improving Prime TV also helped add glitz to the results, contributing $14.3 million in advertising revenue, an increase of 22 per cent.
Prime's share of peak viewing increased to 6.2 per cent from 6.1 per cent, helped by shows such as Top Gear and America's Got Talent.
Sky TV's operating costs were up 2.5 per cent to $229.4 million, which included a 0.5 per cent increase in programming costs.
The cost of new channels were, however, offset by a strong dollar and lower rugby programming costs due to fewer All Black test matches in the World Cup year.
Subscriber management costs went up 8.3 per cent to $1.7 million, largely due to the increase in subscribers and additional decoder repair costs due to the age of the machinery.
Capital expenditure rose by $12.5 million to $54.9 million, mainly due to a $20.5 million broadcasting upgrade project.
Goldman Sachs JBWere analyst Rodney Deacon said the results were solid, with lower debt cost and depreciation than expected.
"They've reiterated that they're happy with the range of earnings estimates that are out there from all the analysts - that implies some pretty good growth for the full year to the end of June versus last year. Today's result just proves that they are on track to achieve that."
An interim dividend of 7c a share was declared, compared with 5c a share last year. Shares closed up 6c to $5.
SKY NETWORK TELEVISION
Six months to December 31
2007 2006
Revenue $328.7m $303.4m
Ebit$25.4m$18.1mNet profit $51.2m $36.5m
Interim dividend 7c 5c
