Granada Group Plc today caved in and agreed to hand over a check for 30m pounds compensation (CI No 3,332) to British Sky Broadcasting Plc, a piece of news which nicely set the backdrop to both BSkyB’s half-year figures and the continuing war for control of digital television in the UK and Europe. But Carlton Communications is holding back its half of the payment to BSkyB saying that it will hold onto the money until it has landed lucrative TV rights through BSkyB for the UK’s soccer Premier League. The argument has arisen because despite pulling out of the BDB venture, BSkyB still has a contract to provide its former partners with programming for the next five years (CI No 3,332). A spokesperson for Carlton commented: We are entirely right not to pay BSkyB in full until they have secured UK premiership soccer rights for digital terrestrial TV. The Premier League is ready, willing and able to negotiate but Sky is dragging its feet. Meanwhile, BSkyB confirmed its June launch date making it the first broadcaster to launch a digital service in the UK, ahead of terrestrial rivals BDB. The move means hardware manufacturers Matsushita Industrial Electric Co, Amstrad and Pace Micro Technology Plc can start volume roll out of their set-top boxes. Despite sinking around 100m pounds into its digital TV venture over the last six months, a figure which is expected to rise to 190m pounds by June, the News Corp controlled company looks in better shape than many analysts and the recent share price slide would suggest. Net profits for the six months to December fell 4% to 117m pounds but revenue rose 19.8% to 691.8m pounds. BSkyB announced that it will be increasing its marketing spend to promote the new digital service, saying it aims re-invigorate the Sky brand by targeting families, children and women, markets which it says have so far been under-served. Elsewhere BSkyB said it would be taking measures to reduce its churn rate – the percentage of users who discontinue subscriptions with Chief Executive Mark Booth commenting: we’re going to be rather more careful about who we let in the front door from now on.
