Friday, April 4, 2008

Watching Sky Television

Chart for Sky Network Television Limited  (SKT.NZ)

A continued drop in share price for SKT, in the face of an historically high Kiwi dollar,
doesn't bode well for the company when the NZ dollar loses value.



Sports, The Sopranos, Coronation Street and Late Night with Letterman, my personal Fav-we all watch too much TV but is it a good investment?

On first glance Sky Television Network [SKT.NZX] looks like a great blue chip, with excellent prospects and good cashflow. They announced an excellent profit of just over $NZ 51 million for the half year to Dec 31 2007 which was up roughly 40% on the same period last year.

I would argue though that Sky could face an uncertain future, for a number of reasons.

The technology needed to keep the company updated and competitive is very expensive and will require much shareholder cash to do so. Sky need to continually update technology, because they will face intense competition in the future, from cheaper and better services from foreign lands sending their content to customers in New Zealand, through broadband pipes that look set to get bigger from this year.

Another large problem Sky face is the cost of programming.

Currently the Kiwi exchange rate vs the US dollar, where the bulk of Sky programming is purchased, is at near post float highs and has been unusually high for a couple of years.

This is unlikely to continue, as historically the NZ dollar averages below 60c to the US dollar.

Like other shares listed on the NZX, the price of SKT has been hit badly, down to $4.90 currently but off from an all time high of above $6.50 just over 2 years ago.

The share price really should be doing alot better considering the historically high NZ/US dollar cross.

Further weakness in share price will clearly be the order of the day when the NZ dollar falls.

The company is in a dominant position at present in the pay TV market, it is the only player, but its customer satisfaction isn't good, as they use their monopoly position to excuse weak customer care.

Something that monopolies like Telecom NZ Ltd [TEL.NZX], and Auckland International Airport Ltd[AIA.NZX] also suffer from.

Sky Television management need to be a bit more savvy in their outlook to the competition that is out there.

With the internet and mobile technology playing an ever increasing influence in the war for consumers eyeballs, their attitude to that technology and a better attention to customer service and satisfaction will help them counter their competition.

The jury however, is still out over whether they can achieve that.

Disc: I own AIA shares in the Share Investor Portfolio


Sky Network Television @ Share Investor

Long Term View: Sky Network Television Ltd
Watching Sky Television
Market Quickie: Sky TV Worth Watching

Discuss SKT @ Share Investor Forum
Download SKT Company Reports


From Fishpond.co.nz

Every Bastard Says No: The 42 Below Story

Buy Every Bastard Says No - The 42 Below Story, by Geoff Ross & Justine Troy & more @ Fishpond.co.nz

Fishpond


c Share Investor 2008

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Shameless plug for Share Investor (UPDATE 3)

*Just an additional note to this post yesterday. Deanne Nichols, who has a presence on Share Trader as "Skytower" and "Metro" is behind selling my name to the present "owner" of the Share Investor URL. I'm not sure if they are one and the same.

*There are also comments about this site and its content on the URL. None of it is true. I do not plagiarize work by others and pass it off as my own here and any posts written on other sites are merely to discuss investing.

If any work is by others, I acknowledge where it has come from.

Neither have I been making threats towards anyone.

This individual has been spamming me and my old Share Investor Forum since I banned him from it last August for posting "inappropriate content".

As for the other stuff, well, it's really quite dangerous to be calling me a sex offender and publishing my address and phone number.

Time for some shameless plugging.


You can now get my blog and forum at the following URLS

www.shareinvestor.biz - A range of financial type websites from Share Investor
Shareinvestorforum.com- Share Investor Forum
Shareinvestor.co.nz - Share Investor Forum
Shareinestor.nz - Share Investor Forum
Sharetrader.biz - Share Investor Forum
www.shareinvestorblog.com - Share Investor Blog
www.shareinvestornz.blogspot.com - Share Investor Blog 

I am working on a permanent forum, with some extra special tasty treats to compete with the only other financial forum in New Zealand,Share Trader/Sharechat, run by Phillip Mac Callister of Tarawera Publishing.

The site, will be found at www.shareinvestorforum.com. This is phpBB3 based, the latest in forum technology. We will have a dedicated server and intend to compete head to head with Mr Mac Callister, aggressively and fairly, to see what we can achieve..

Some of you may know that I have had problems securing the NZ Share Investor domain because Deanne Nichols, who calls himself "Metro" and "Skytower" at Share Trader, cyber squatted on it for a year.

Deano no longer holds the name and somehow it has found its way to a Brisbane squatter and something very peculiar is going on there. I am not presently related to that site.

The individual who has registered the domain is Lincon Peterson.

The name Share Investor and the logo above are registered trademarks and cannot be used by the Brisbane leach and I have since filed a dispute with the domain name disputes people.

If you are reading this Mr squatter, you have my intellectual property and I will see you in court if need be.

I don't give up, ever.

I wanted to put this lot on public record and hope you guys are not too bored with this running saga and will support my future endeavors.

Cheers, Darren

*Just a footnote, I finally got control of www.shareinvestor.co.nz in Jan 2010 after 3 years of trying.


Related Reading

Share Trader do dirty on Share Investor





c Share Investor 2008



Labour first to break own Electoral Finance Act

Political Animal Electoral Finance Act coverage

2008 Electoral Finance Act protest
Electoral Finance Act March Mar 9, 2008
Electoral Finance Bill Vote
NZ losses democratic freedom
Mike Moore turns the knife
List of MPs who voted for Act
Cartoon and comment
2007 Auckland Protest against EFB
The purpose of the Bill is clear


The Labour Party has been the first political party to breach the Electoral Finance Act, but it is to be let off with a warning, friends in high places I think.

The Electoral Commission met on Wednesday to consider whether a number of political pamphlets breached the new act.

It found that the Labour Party's booklet entitled We're Making a Difference is an election advertisement, and needed an authorisation statement.

The commission says that as it is the first breach of the Electoral Finance Act, it will use this as an example.

http://www.dontvotelabourcartoons.com/gallery/cartoon19.jpg

But it says political parties are on notice that any similar breaches will be referred to police.

As is usual with grubby, raincoat wearing socialists, it is a case of do as I say, not as I do and the state apparatus has fallen in behind. Isn't the example better made by prosecuting rather than letting the law breakers get off?

Absolutely. But we shouldn't be surprised of course. This bunch passed retrospective law to make stealing taxpayers money to buy the 2005 election legal.

There is still no news about the $100,000.00 loan made to the Labour party by Owen Glenn after the 2005 election and not disclosed.



Related Political Animal reading

Owen Glenn: Snouts in the trough
The Owen Glenn story: Singing the same tune but hitting a bum note
Labour Party Election funding murky at best

c Political Animal 2008

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Charity begins at the money source









Winston Peters, in much happier times.

Related nzherald links:


You just know it is election year when members of Winston "Baubles" Peters party, NZ First start poking their tongues out at immigrants.

Once again it was Asian immigrants who bore the brunt of the poodle party's wrath and ironically it was a 10 pound pom who was the chief protagonist.

Appealing to NZ Firsts near dead voter constituency of over 80 year olds who thinks Winston is "cute" in that Italian suit and $200 dollar haircut, immigration looks set to become the party's main platform on which to launch itself for the election.

Fantastic, xenophobia, attacks on journalists and giving to worthy causes will be Winston's three key points this year-hold your hand like a horizontal scout salute when you make those points OK.

Unfortunately for us, Winston's largess in giving to charity means we miss out on the $158,000 he purloined from the taxpayer wallet to get himself elected in 2005. Hell, even the biggest bandits of them all, The Labour Party, paid back the more than $800,000 they stole to buy the same election.

In fact I think I may employ Winston's "charitable deductions" when it comes to paying the alarm mans bill on Friday.

No Sir, I don't believe I will pay your bill, I would like to nominate we pay the food bill this week with it instead. The alarm man is bigger than me, and I suspect I might get a well deserved thick ear, even at the mere suggestion.

The arrogance of the man is only surpassed by his obvious vanity and lack of ability to do his job.

Like alot of parliamentarians, he simply is a useless wanker.

Related Political animal reading

Peter's Baubles giving him big trouble
Winston Peter's Big Baubles

c Political Animal 2008