Download Weekly: Tough year for Sky TV

Sky books loss, points to future profits

Sky Television reported a net loss of $156.8 million for the 2020 financial year. This included a $178 million goodwill write-down the company says reflects the uncertainty over the effect of Covid-19. Operating profit before the impairment is $45 million.

Revenue fell six percent to $747.6 million. That is at the upper end of guidance which forecasted $730 to $750 million. While Sky enjoyed a 35 percent increase in streaming revenue, this was not enough to offset the drop in subscribers to the satellite TV service.

Sky says it will return to profit in the current financial year. It says sport, the mainstay of Sky's offer to customers, is returning faster than expected after the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. It expects this will profits come in higher than previously forecast.

Profit coming

Guidance for the current year puts net profit in the $10 to 20 million range with ebitda expected to come in between $125 and $140 million. Sky expects revenue to decline further to between $660 and $700 million. These numbers are higher than the guidance issues in May.

Sky reports a 27 percent increase in total subscriber numbers. The year end total of 990,000 is down a tad from the peak of 1 million during the lockdown, yet ahead of expectations.

Much of the increase in the last year came from the company's acquisition of the Lightbox streaming services from Spark and from its RugbyPass streaming service. As a result of these changes the average revenue per customer fell but streaming customer numbers leapt 150 percent from 160,000 to over 400,000.

Satellite customer numbers dropped 5.5 percent to 585,000 at the end of the financial year. That's a small improvement on the 6.4 percent drop a year earlier.

Vodafone brings global IoT management system to NZ

Vodafone New Zealand has launched a system that lets companies manage IoT assets. It is a locally developed version of Vodafone Group's Global Data Service Platform which will sell here under the Connect by Xone brand. GDSP manages more than 100 million IoT connections worldwide.

Michelle Sharp, Vodafone head of IoT, says Connect by Xone will allow more businesses to adopt IoT technology by giving them more visibility and control over connections. She says: “We are seeing many incredible innovations in the IoT field, driving more efficient, safer and more sustainable businesses and communities.”

Working from home sees NZ PC sales up 40 percent

IDC reports New Zealand's PC market grew 39.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020. Sales for commercial PCs were up 61.5 percent during the period. The rapid jump came as employees and students moved to work from home. The research company says PC makers struggled to keep up with demand facing increased freight costs and lower number of freight flights into New Zealand. IDC predicts there will be an equally strong performance in the current quarter.