Thursday, 27 January 2011 at 10:12, Reutres, London
BSkyB is set to post a near 25 per cent jump in first-half adjusted operating profit on Thursday, underlining the danger to News Corp of any delay in negotiating its $12.5 billion bid offer. BSkyB, which will report first-half financial results at 0700 GMT, has been adding new customers and selling new products to existing subscribers at a heady rate.
It is also starting to reap the benefits of a heavy investment programme, efficiency savings and its move to buy out the firm which makes many of its set-top boxes. News Corp has offered to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own to consolidate a business it helped build but now needs to allay concerns the deal will not give too much control over public opinion to Rupert Murdoch. The government is considering unspecified proposals put forward by News Corp to alleviate competition concerns before deciding whether to refer the proposed deal for a full, six-month competition inquiry. It is expected to have added 154,000 net new subscribers in the second quarter, who were on average paying a new record of £525 per year. The growth is likely to have been boosted by demand for high definition TV services and broadband.
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