SKT Sky Network Television Limited.

[mistaTea]

https://www.nzx.com/announcements/347828

Anyone any idea how long it takes for the two products to become one ?

Doesn't sound like it will take too long. A few months - they should have something by the middle of this year.

That tells me they are pushing ahead with the investment they have already made in NEON to get it up to scratch.

If it was just a matter if merging the content, they could take the Lightbox shows - stick it on the NEON server and hey presto! The service is merged. They could transfer the content and test it within a day or so if that was the case.

So they must be doing a fair bit of dev and testing still for the new service before they present the new merged offering.

[mistaTea]

At this level I am expecting to see Sky acquired in the not too distant future. Someone like Foxtel...

Yeah mate, that is my worry. I don't mind if Sky is bought out per se...perhaps going private, and having the backing of someone with deep pockets will help Sky be more competitive (it will certainly remove a lot of the scrutiny).

But I wouldn't want to sell for pennies on the dollar.

And think about it... the current market cap is only $300M. If we assume that the price tag of $62M for RugbyPass is not completely looney tunes...

That means the market currently values 'core Sky' at only $240M!!! I mean, that is absurd. Even though there is pressure on revenue and earnings... a company with a low PE of 10 (in this market) would only need to have earnings of $24M per year. Sky's current 'owner earnings' is way higher than that...and one would need to expect some really huge drops in owner earnings over the next 5 - 10 years to justify a price like that. I don't see it.

I am sure there are companies sniffing around, looking to acquire Sky as she does own some really valuable assets - I just hope management only entertain offers that resemble intrinsic value.

[RTM]

Doesn't sound like it will take too long. A few months - they should have something by the middle of this year.

That tells me they are pushing ahead with the investment they have already made in NEON to get it up to scratch.

If it was just a matter if merging the content, they could take the Lightbox shows - stick it on the NEON server and hey presto! The service is merged. They could transfer the content and test it within a day or so if that was the case.

So they must be doing a fair bit of dev and testing still for the new service before they present the new merged offering.

We were watching Succession on Neon a couple of nights ago.
Without touching the iPad (danger danger) ....it stalled 3 or 4 times.
Pain in the A. !
So yes....be really nice if it was more stable !

[mistaTea]

Part of the recent SP crash was caused by Sky suspending the dividend.

They may be temped to resume some kind of payout to shareholders - God knows they still have healthy enough cashflows to do it...

But personally I would prefer them to return cash to shareholders by way of a share buyback. At the current low market cap, they could purchase back the 10% of shares that were dished out to RugbyPass and NZRugby for $30M.

That would be a much better result for long-term shareholders compared to paying a dividend (which is taxed).

It is precisely when SP is very low that management should consider buybacks. All to often, however, management of listed companies do the opposite - they buyback when SP is at or above intrinsic value as a way to try and show increased earnings per share.

[see weed]

That's a shame, was thinking of buying 100k to get a dividend for a strip. Might have to go somewhere else.

[Waikaka]

Was doing a little reading on SKY but decided I am not going to over analyse this one.

Current PE of less than 5.
Surprisingly steady free cash-flow (average of the last 5 years $147 million)
Reducing debt

On the flip side, pretty steadily decline in revenue, still too much debt, a widely hated business model but at this price happy to hold my nose pick up a few to encourage me to read up on the business. Pretty sure it is a bargain, great entry point at the moment.

[mistaTea]

Interesting article: https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/03...e-pull-it-off/

[Entrep]

Yes it is, the intro is complete BS however -

Sky’s new CEO hasn’t yet been in his job for a year, but has already achieved more than his predecessor did in a decade.

[mistaTea]

Yes it is, the intro is complete BS however -

I think he said he did the interview in December. And Martin came in board Feb 2019.

So that was true at the time he was chatting to him.

Or are you referring to the ‘did more than John fellet did in 10 years’ hyperbole?

[Timesurfer]

I hope they research the "love of the bundle" theory before launching a do or die run. I don't imagine that I am the only person out there who has no interest in such a package. I went off sport when sky first bought it all up and haven't returned, local programing I can get more than my fill of on free to air and won't miss it if its not there, and general news I can get all I want online without the drivel.