British Sky Broadcasting Q3 profit rises on back of forced sale of ITV shares

Sale of ITV shares boosts BSkyB Q3 profit

LONDON — British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC on Thursday reported a third quarter profit of 286 million pounds ($434 million) with a boost from the forced sale of most of its stake in rival ITV PLC.

Earnings were helped by a profit of 115 million pounds as the company obeyed a regulatory order to sell a 10.4 percent stake in ITV, a commercial broadcaster. Revenue rose 8 percent to 1.5 billion pounds.

A year earlier BSkyB turned a net profit of 3 million pounds as it booked an impairment charge of 132 million pounds on its ITV stake.

BSkyB shares were up 3.2 percent at 615 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Satellite-based BSkyB reported 428,000 net additions for its new high-definition TV service, and it said the number of customers for its triple play of TV, broadband and telephone service rose 39 percent to 1.9 million.

For the nine months to March 31, BSkyB reported a net profit of 542 million pounds, compared to 149 million pounds a year earlier.

BSkyB, controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., had taken a 17.9 percent stake in ITV in 2006, effectively blocking a possible takeover bid by Virgin Media.

The company announced in February that it had sold most of that ITV stake — 10.4 percent — for 48.5 pence per share, substantially less than the 135 pence per share it had originally paid. However, the company said it booked a profit on the sale because it had already written down the value of the stock to 20 pence per share.

On the Net: corporate.sky.com