StarChoice Reduces Quarterly Loss By 53%.!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Well folks, the financial results are in & StarChoice is the winner! Their Quarterly(Nov) loss was only $10 million vs ExpressVu's $70 million Quarterly(Dec)loss reported yesterday!

For the Quarter Ended Nov 30th
Revenue $104,449,000
Loss Before Amortization -$10,110,000

The Loss Before Amortization For The Same Period last year was -$21,317,000

Here's additional info from the Shaw News Release today:

Star Choice gained 45,000 subscribers during the quarter, which is less than our expectations announced at the beginning of the year. This is one area that we believe has been negatively impacted by the events of September 11, 2001. Star Choice's satellite offering is sold essentially through retail, whereas Shaw's cable and Internet services are sold primarily through its direct sales force. It is interesting to note that the new direct sales force for satellite is exceeding expectations but at this time it is a small portion of the total sales effort. The Christmas season and Star Choice's continued focus on its direct sales produced better results in December with the net addition of 25,000 subscribers, a 14% improvement over last year's December sales. As a result of the foregoing, the target for satellite subscribers as at August 31, 2002 has been revised to 805,000. Due to the revised target of subscribers and initiatives in the areas of cost reductions, price increases and new packaging of services, the net effect is to change the guidance for DTH operating income before amortizaton from $5 million to a loss of $5 million for the fiscal year.

Star Choice experienced higher than usual churn in September and October due to the Quebec re-point project and the price increases announced in September. As a result, annualized churn for the quarter was 10.8%. Based on the lower churn rates achieved subsequent to October, Star Choice believes it will be within its target churn rate of 9% for the year.

ARPU grew to $46.56 for the quarter from $45.26 last quarter and from $44.28 one year ago, due to the September 1, 2001 increase in monthly rates on the Platinum, Gold and Silver packages by $2 and the Bronze package by $1. Based on Star Choice's continued focus on high-end package penetration, expanded services, improved pay-per-view buy rates and the increased sales momentum in November and December, Star Choice anticipates that ARPU will reach its target of $48 by year end. The cost of acquisition per subscriber was $761 for the quarter compared to $645 for the same period last year. The increase is primarily associated with the recent increase in the number of subscribers purchasing second receivers at a subsidized cost. To compensate for this increased cost, Star Choice reduced the programming credit by $50. As a result of this trend, Star Choice has revised its target cost of acquisition to $750 for the year and anticipates that it will reach breakeven on a post subscriber acquisition cost basis by the first quarter of fiscal 2003.

Revenue increased 29% and the operating loss decreased 53% over the same quarter last year due to the growth in subscribers and increased ARPU. As expected, capital expenditures increased $16 million due to Star Choice retaining ownership of satellite dishes on new installations and due to the introduction of the Leasing Plan offer. DTH subsidies decreased due to lower activations in the current quarter versus the same period last year. This positive variance has been offset by the increase in the number of subscribers purchasing second and third receivers.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

But there revenue was 25% or (1/4) of BEVs. I think that BEV had a huge loss because of all the new SUBS they had for 2001 ( more than 4 times as many new SUBS as SC)

StarChoice may have lost less money but you have to look at the big picture.

As someone stated earlier it costs more to make a cadillac than a sunfire.

I hope they can both make money this year so that both will be around, but BEV does have deeper pockets IMO. The stock price is still around where it has been the last few years as well, which considering the state of the economy is great.

Bottom line is they are both good companies for consumers. BEV is just growing so fast! But they will have to control their expenses and they will im sure.

[XBR_II]

Not too shabby numbers, overall. Shame the Quebec re-point fiasco cost them so dearly; they should take a long hard look at why it went so wrong.

So, when do you think Shaw will buy ExpressView's operations from Bell? Place your bets now, folks!

[snoman]

I hope Rogers gets them instead.
At least ol Ted ain't afraid to try anything new.

[snoman]

I always new you were a pirate at heart QIJO.

BTW which sno pic do you prefer?

[BCTripster]

The second one looks good to me /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Yes it is good , Caddy's , but when they start stealing caddy's then the insurance rate's increase and everyone across the board must pay higher premium's . It's a vicious circle and the honest guy's always end up holding the bag !

[snoman]

Yeah I prefer the second myself.
The first one looks kinda....well you know. /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

Hey good idea with your signature Trip.
I think I'll do the same with CC since I'm a mod there.

[snoman]

OK lets try this again

[**DONOTDELETE**]

cant your just type it with http:// in front

<a target="_blank" href=http://www.kusat.com>http://www.kusat.com</a>

it seems to work!!

[snoman]

All right one more time

BINGO!

[snoman]

Sure you could but looks cleaner this way.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

You are correct it does look cleaner

[I_M_Norm_Al]

... when goated into action by Jim Shaw. Imagine Shaw attacking someone over "poor service - don't care attitude"

[mikealex]

QIJO, I gave my response to this in the other thread you started on this exact same topic. Here it is again for ya:

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

So, now that both reports are out, who's really winning (not that it really matters).

Obviously, looking strictly at dollars, BEV lost more than *C.

Growth, *C didn't give the actual number of subscribers they added. So, I did a little math. If they now have 674k subs, and that is 7% growth, then they had somewhere around 630k subs at the start of the quarter. So they added around 44k subs, compared to BEV's 15% growth or 139k new subs.

So, percentagely, BEV grew twice as fast as *C over the quarter. In absolute numbers, BEV added more than 3 times the number of subscribers.

Given that this is currently a growth industry, where giving out subsidies is necessary to grab market share, some (but not all) of the difference in financial loss can be attributed to the larger number of new subs. Shaw seems to want *C to become profitable soon, possibly at the expense of market share. BEV, on the other hand, seems to value market share over profit right now, hoping it will be paid back by the larger subscriber base in the future.

Which strategy is right?

*C's strategy of becoming profitable sooner, well never anything wrong with making profit, but right now, it's more of a short term view. Putting profit over market share now, will mean lower profits in the future because of a smaller customer base.

BEV's strategy of market share over profit is a long term view. Take the losses now to gain market share, and then get larger profits from a larger customer base in the future. Works, as long as your pockets are deep enough to keep afloat until the profit boat arrives.

Only time will tell which strategy will win out in the end. Hopefully both. Until then, I am glad to see some healthy competition in the Canadian DTH market. It will keep these two companies, with their monopoly-minded parents, on their toes.


<hr></blockquote>

You also didn't respond to my question of how, as a BCE shareholder, you are helping your stock by continually bashing on one of their major holdings?

[QualityIsJobOne]

Well, I hold a few BCE shares...

BCE certainly wasn't my stock pick. I'm no longer a client of the broker who got me into BCE.

I do believe that ExpressVu's increasing losses are one of the factors that BCE shares have lost 23% of their value in the past year. I'm hoping BCE shares recover later this year so I can dump them.

BTW- Here's one of the few good investments that my previous broker got me into (a much better investment than BCE)...Retirement Residences RRR.UN REIT TSE http://investdb.theglobeandmail.com/invest/investSQL/gx.stock_today?pi_symbol=RRR.UN-T Great growth &amp; a high monthly income payout to investors!

Cheers!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Interesting to note that SC's sales increased in Dec when they finally got the message that the $199 NET was too high compared to BEV's $99 NET regardless of the SS plan.
SC's marketing always has been less than stellar always reacting rather than leading.
I mean the SS plan and the Lease program are great ideas just never have been marketed correctly , bottom line is most people buy on price point not bells and whistles.
Today they got a $99 NET with the added benefits of the SS plan so sales should fly.
BEV sold more based on the lower net cost plus the security issue cannot be overlooked as everyone knows someone who is hacking. Hard for SC to compete with free TV.
Here's hoping BEV fixes its open air problems and levels the playing field , would definitely help their bottom line as well.
Overall SC is poised to continue to grow. Glad I got my Shaw stock.

[fmr2002]

According to this article, Shaw lost quite a bit of money.


Shaw loss rises, debt charges blamed

Fri, Jan 25, 2002

CALGARY -- Shaw Communications, Western Canada's dominant cable TV provider, says debt charges from acquisitions were largely behind a 58-per-cent increase in its loss for the fiscal first quarter.

The loss for the quarter ended Nov. 30 was $52.3 million or 28 cents a share, compared with a loss of $33 million or 21 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue rose to $448.7 million from $345.64 million.

The Calgary-based company cited $24 million in interest charges from increased debt as a result of acquiring Moffat Communications and cable systems from Rogers Communications, plus increased capital spending over the past few years.

The company said it expects "significant improvements" in income in future quarters, particularly from Internet services, with the elimination of the Excite(at)Home fee. Net savings are expected to be about $5 per subscriber per month.

"Shaw is tracking to achieve its fiscal year-end target of $610 million of cable and Internet operating income, before amortization," the company said. On the Toronto stock market yesterday, Shaw's class B shares fell 51 cents to close at $31.99.

-- Canadian Press

[**DONOTDELETE**]

TechGuy is that you Simsat /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

DAK