February 19th, 2009 by BGonaSTICK

London’s Financial Times newspaper has published a topical piece on the all-powerful BSkyB, in which it points out that:

“In spite of charging almost £50 a month for a full package of channels, the satellite broadcaster is still signing up new customers at a healthy rate.”

This is even more scary when you realise that large numbers are currently taking up what looks like a very attractive offer for BSkyB’s high-definition service (Sky HD box for £49, free installation and £30 M&S vouchers) - even though this will currently cost them an extra £9.75 a month!

The FT goes on:

“Clearly, the public is willing to pay for distraction from the misery of the slump.”

“Sky must be confident that this trend will continue”, although concerns that BSkyB’s share price (when compared to other media stocks) is now at a 5-year high.

“That puts the uptrend since October in jeopardy. In fact, on a longer-term view, the shares’ multi-year bear market remains intact. This suggests that we may be in for further aggressive downside before too long”

So who’s signing up for this not-so-cheap little luxury? Who can actually afford £60 a month for TV and still pay all other the bills? Are people conning themselves that they’ll be saving money by staying in and staring at the box every night?

Search me!

Not the time to be investing all those ’saved expenses’ in BSkyB shares either, I think.