News Corp will split publishing out of its business by creating a company to include newspapers in the US, UK and Australia as well as book publisher HarperCollins News Corp revenue growth has for some time been driven by explosive growth in cable network programming revenues, with slower revenue growth in film, TV, satellite TV and publishing The structural decline of print-based businesses is the main reason cited for the split. However, the Dow Jones and WSJ, both serving a B2B market, will be at the heart of the new publishing company’s value
Sky Italia’s strategy of selling low-priced satellite packages and HD set-top boxes has sharply reduced profitability, but helped subscriber growth
Escalating per user costs of football rights in a PAYG model has dissolved the profitability of Mediaset Premium, with no real upside visible
Sky Italia and Mediaset Premium both face the strong headwinds of the long consumer recession in Italy
Positive Q3 FY 2006 results and the announcement of a possible flotation have raised speculation that Sky Italia may be gearing itself up to follow BSkyB’s entry into broadband