2nd Nov 2007 09:00
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC02 November 2007 2 November 2007 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (the "Company") Annual General Meeting At the Annual General Meeting of the Company held today at the Royal Instituteof British Architects, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD at 9:00am. TheChairman's statement follows below: "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the nineteenth AnnualGeneral Meeting of British Sky Broadcasting. It is a pleasure to see so manyshareholders here today. Let me introduce your Board of Directors: working from the centre on myimmediate right I have James Murdoch, Jeremy Darroch, Allan Leighton, GailRebuck, Jacques Nasser, Lord Wilson of Dinton and Andrew Higginson. On my left Ihave Dave Gormley, the Company Secretary, Lord Rothschild, Nicholas Ferguson,Arthur Siskind, David DeVoe, David Evans and Chase Carey. We have a lot of business to get through this morning and we will consider theagenda in a moment. But first I would like to say a few words. Our story Earlier this year I had the pleasure of attending an event we hosted for 200members of staff who had been with Sky since the early days, just 18 years ago.I am very proud personally to have been involved, working alongside thesepioneers, from day one. It has been a remarkable story, and there are many morechapters to come. Today, British consumers enjoy better choice, better quality and better value inentertainment and communications than ever before. I am in no doubt that this isa direct result of the dynamic and competitive marketplace that Sky has helpedto create. This is the environment in which the Company is at its best and theone in which it will, I am confident, continue to prosper in future. It is easy to forget how much has changed in only a relatively short time. Before we launched Sky, some 50 million people here in the UK had the choice ofonly four television channels. People watched the programmes that the broadcasters wanted them to watch, at thetimes the broadcasters decided to schedule them. A handful of news bulletins a day was considered sufficient. Film premieres were mostly confined to an occasional Saturday night, andfrequently interrupted by ad breaks or news programmes. Programmes for children were available for just a few hours a day. And sports coverage was very limited as broadcasters failed to comprehend thevalue audiences placed on live events. I am delighted that Sky helped to bring about the end of that world oflimitation and scarcity. We were the first to bring multichannel TV to the whole of the UK. The first in Europe to offer a dedicated 24-hour news service. The first to show films 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The first to provide live coverage of overseas test cricket, Premier Leaguefootball, and many sports that had never been seen live on TV before. The first to offer an integrated Digital Television Recorder - Sky+ - that putsfamilies in control of their own viewing. The first to offer high-definition pictures on a choice of channels. Moreover, the depth and quality of Sky's programme offering has led otherbroadcasters to respond - raising standards across the board - to the benefit ofviewers. What we believe Our beliefs are simple but powerful. We believe in better. Better choice for our customers; better quality for our customers; betterservice for our customers; and better value. We believe that the only strategy for success in a competitive marketplace is tomaintain an absolute focus on meeting customer needs. The good news for companies like Sky is that consumers are taking charge. Peopleeverywhere will soon have the power to access a virtually unlimited wealth ofinformation, to choose what they want from it, to share it, to add to it, and tocreate new communities that transcend old boundaries. No doubt this will be painful for some. It will threaten businesses that fail toadapt. But as a trend it has to be good for our society. I think it will also be good for companies like Sky. I mean the companies thatare positive and optimistic about change, that take risks and that focus aboveall else on their customers. In Britain, the entertainment and communications marketplace is changing fastand has never been more competitive. For Sky, competition is not simply a fact of life to be tolerated. We relishcompetition and help to create it. We compete vigorously, responsibly andfairly. Above all, competition is great for consumers. History has shown that it iscompetition and free markets which deliver real, sustainable value. This issomething that we should encourage and celebrate more, here in the UK. I see noreason to be fearful of allowing choice and innovation to flourish even morefreely in the years ahead. In the future, consumers are going to be even more demanding. They are going towant even more control and convenience, and they will reward the companies thatgive it to them. Our goal is not only to be one of those companies. We want to be the best ofthem. That is what drives us forward. Business updateOver 8.6 million families in the UK and Ireland choose Sky today. In the pastyear they have bought more than 3 million new products from us - twice as manyas they did the previous year. Almost one in three of our customers now takes Sky+, with a new Sky+ box soldevery 30 seconds. And over 350,000 have chosen Sky HD in a little over a yearsince launch - making it our fastest selling additional TV product to date. But we are no longer simply a broadcaster and pay television operator. We arealso the UK's fastest growing broadband and telephony provider. When I stood here 12 months ago, we had just launched Sky Broadband. Someexpressed surprise and concern that Sky was moving into a new area, and onedominated by well-established giants with deep pockets. They missed an important point. The customer experience provided by these incumbents was poor and prices werehigh. We have entered this marketplace with the same spirit of choice andcompetition that we brought to television 18 years ago. Now we offer a quality service at the lowest of prices. Customers are savinghundreds of pounds a year by choosing Sky. Today, after less than 14 months of operation, Sky Broadband has over onemillion customers, while around 700,000 have chosen Sky Talk. Most have switchedfrom another provider. And new products are helping to attract new people to Sky. In the last quarter,17% of those taking Sky HD, 30% of those taking Sky+ and 39% of those signing upto Sky Broadband were new Sky customers. These are the clearest signs of Sky's transformation into a fast growingentertainment and communications company. Seeing the bigger pictureAs well as delivering quality products and outstanding service, customers wantto interact with a company that shares their values and understands its role insociety. At Sky, we see the bigger picture. We invest in the future by working with ourcustomers to tackle the issues they care about, particularly the environment andeducation. As many of you may know, we were the first media company in the world to becomecarbon neutral in 2006. We did that after a good deal of detailed work reducingemissions and improving our energy efficiency. But we believe we can make an even greater contribution by working with othersto help them take action. We already have important initiatives under way with our suppliers and businesspartners. And we have started to work with our customers to help them reducetheir own carbon footprint. We have already halved the energy consumption of our standard set-top boxes andintroduced a world first - automatic stand-by on some of our Sky+ and HD boxes,saving 32,000 tonnes of carbon in the first year. We have also started to help our customers to unlock the educational value ofthe channels on our television service. Discovery, The History Channel, National Geographic and many more offerprogramming that is relevant to children's studies, but might easily be missed. That is where Sky Learning comes in. It enables students, and their parents andteachers, to find material useful for their education across hundreds ofchannels on the Sky platform. These initiatives are part of our commitment to customers: to look after theirinterests and to do the right thing. Key financialsFinancially the Group is in robust health. Turnover for the year to June 2007increased by 10% to £4.6 billion, generating cashflow from operations of £1billion and earnings per share of 28.4p. This financial strength has not only opened up new growth opportunities throughour expansion into broadband and telephony, but at the same time we have beenable to increase the ordinary dividend by more than 70% in just two years. Wewill continue to look to grow the dividend in line with underlying earningsduring the investment phase in broadband and telephony. The strength of our financial model is already delivering accelerated top-linegrowth thanks to the increased opportunity we now have as a result of ourexpanding product range. I believe that Sky has never been better positioned forfuture growth than it is today. ConclusionI am very proud of what this company achieved over the past 18 years, and ourbroad contribution to life in the UK. But I am also in the business of lookingforward, not of dwelling on the past. It is great to be involved with a company that plays an important part intoday's entertainment and communications revolution - a company that is still asfresh, energetic and hungry as it was when we started out on this journey 18years ago. We will remain unswervingly committed to offering our customers more: morequality, more value, more service - and always - more choice. We will try tothink big, to challenge, to innovate, and to look forwards. I am confident that Sky will continue to deliver for its customers and achieveits business objectives. There is an unrivalled strength and depth of talentacross the Company. From on-screen presenters to customer advisers, andtechnicians to marketeers, the hard work, enthusiasm and tireless dedication ofSky people is the key to the Company's success. I would also like to pay tribute to our entire executive team. I have beenfortunate to work with many excellent companies across the globe, but I canattest that few have the depth of leadership that Sky enjoys. Finally, I would like to thank all the non-executive directors for the time theyhave invested and for their significant contribution and continued support." This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Sky