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Innovation, programming and content OUR PRODUCTS GREAT NEW TECHNOLOGY, MORE CHOICE THAN EVER BEFORE, INVESTMENT IN QUALITY ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING, ACCESS TO THE BIGGEST MOVIES, AWARD-WINNING COVERAGE AND THE PLACE TO WATCH SPORT ON TV. OUR PRODUCT NEVER STANDS STILL, BECAUSE OUR CUSTOMERS WANT THE BEST.

British Broadcasting Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2004 15

Innovation, programming and content NEWS In the past 15 years, – Europe’s first 24-hour news broadcaster – has changed the face of UK by creating an expectation among viewers of seeing live.

SKY NEWS AUDIENCE PROFILE Sky News first to the problem of covering judicial Pakistan, to India, to Bangladesh. Earlier Jan–June 2004 Valued for its fairness, balance and proceedings, where cameras are banned, this year, presenter Lisa Aziz and award- Sky News 46% 27% 27% journalistic objectivity by both viewers were both “radical and imaginative.” winning correspondent, , Total TV 45% 23% 32% and regulators, the award-winning broadcast live from Mecca and Jeddah channel has earned a reputation for the The awards underline Sky News’ reputation on the Hajj, bringing viewers the most ABC1 C2 DE Source: BARB speed and flexibility of its coverage. for both breaking news and innovation. comprehensive coverage ever shown by a Other innovations introduced this year non-Muslim broadcaster of the largest Throughout the year, Sky News performed include the SkyCopter, a helicopter which religious ceremony in the world. strongly and, for the third year running, allows the Sky News team to cover major was named RTS News Channel of the stories where scale is important. It was On 10 May, Sky News launched a new Year. At a time which saw all the 24- used to great effect at last year’s Notting service for Ireland. , hour TV news channels striving to raise Hill Carnival, to cover the Rugby anchored by Gráinne Seoige, provides their game, the RTS judges felt, “none Team’s homecoming parade, and by two nightly bulletins of news for Ireland. yet matched the winner who had presenter to report, in a single The output is also carried on a loop on continued to innovate in their coverage day, from various UK cities as part of Sky News Active, allowing viewers in of the war and elsewhere and, as a news Sky News’ Budget coverage. Sky News’ both the UK and Ireland to catch up on channel, remains – simply the best!” fleet of satellite trucks has been adapted Irish news. to receive pictures from the SkyCopter. Sky News also won the RTS Innovation Last autumn, Sky News’ Westminster Award for both its Hutton Inquiry coverage, In addition, Sky News opened a new studio and gallery at were which used actors to provide daily bureau in India in January, underlining revamped into state-of-the-art facilities reconstructions of the proceedings, and its commitment to international coverage. from which set piece events, news its near instantly-aired transcripts of the The bureau, headed up by Sky News’ coverage and ‘Sunday with Adam Soham trial – a television first. The RTS Richard Bestic, covers breaking news Boulton’, are broadcast. judges said Sky News’ solutions across the Indian sub-continent, from

“A pioneering service of 24-hour core news with interactive spin-offs.” Patricia Hodgson Former Chief Executive of Television Commission, ‘Broadcasting and Democracy’ speech, November 2003

Breaking News With bulletins every hour, 24-hours a day, Sky News keeps 130,000 viewers around the FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, SKY NEWS HAS world fully informed. PROVIDED MORE THAN 130,000 HOURS OF UP-TO-THE-MINUTE GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE AND EXPERT IMPARTIAL ANALYSIS.

All TV viewing figures sourced from BARB

16 Annual Report and Accounts 2004 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc In March, Sky News was awarded the contract to supply five with its news service beginning on 1 January 2005, the first time that Sky News will supply No.1 AWARD a full news service to an analogue terrestrial broadcaster. MORE AWARDS FOR SKY NEWS: DURING RTS AWARD JUDGES: SKY NEWS 2004 SKY NEWS WON THE RTS NEWS “AS A NEWS CHANNEL, REMAINS CHANNEL OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR THE SIMPLY THE BEST!” As well as a dedicated team of 60 THIRD YEAR RUNNING. reporters, producers and technicians, the service will include access to Sky News’ existing 24-hour operation, including five regional bureaux and the seven international bureaux in Washington, , , , Johannesburg, and Delhi. News anchor Kirsty Young will continue to present five’s flagship bulletins at 17.30 and 19.00 but from a purpose-built, state-of-the-art studio at Sky News’ base in West . MORE INNOVATION The five contract, combined with both Sky News’ continuing innovations and Hutton Inquiry reconstruction/ its unrivalled expertise in breaking news, Soham trial transcripts will ensure that Sky News remains at The RTS Innovation Award judges said Sky News’ solutions the forefront of news provision in the to the problem of covering 21st century. individual proceedings, where cameras are banned, were “radical and imaginative”.

India bureau Launched in January 2004, Sky News’ SkyCopter India bureau covers The SkyCopter allows the breaking news Sky News team to cover across the Indian major stories where sub-continent. scale is important.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2004 17

Innovation, programming and content continued SPORTS In the year, secured new broadcast rights, witnessed historic live events and set a new audience record.

SKY SPORTS AUDIENCE PROFILE Sky Sports offered over 36,000 hours Sky Sports’ first season of live UEFA Sky Sports also holds a new near-live Jan–June 2004 of coverage across five dedicated sports Champions League coverage attracted package of rights. These will be

Sky Sports 67% 33% channels, secured new programming strong ratings, critical acclaim and broadcast in a new ‘’ Total TV 47% 53% contracts and extended interactive praise from governing body UEFA. Sky programme, which will offer extended coverage to new sports events. digital customers could use interactivity highlights of every Premiership match

Men Women Source: BARB to choose from up to 8 live matches played that day, with viewers able to It gave subscribers a diverse schedule being played simultaneously. choose which match they watch through of live sports programming throughout Sky Sports’ interactive service. the year and from around the world, During the year Sky Sports also won including victory for England’s cricketers new deals for live Spanish The year was also the busiest ever for in the Caribbean and teams from every football, live Welsh home international rugby union production, with over 100 participating nation in rugby union’s football, and secured new agreements live matches stretching through every Heineken Cup. with the English Football Association month of the year. A new deal for and the FA . Exclusively- European Heineken Cup Rugby brought Among the year’s landmarks were live rights to a number of comprehensive coverage, with up to five Sky’s first live UEFA Champions League qualifiers were also secured, including live matches from each round. matches and a new record audience, the opening matches for England and when England’s Euro 2004 Qualifier in September 2004. Live was also broadcast against Turkey, in October 2003, throughout the year and featured every attracted Sky’s largest-ever audience, The 2004-05 season will be the most domestic county and every Test nation. with an in-home peak of 4.2 million televised football campaign ever on Sky England’s tour to the West Indies viewers. Sports, with over 450 live games from produced their first tour victory in the a range of competitions. Caribbean for 34 years and the highest Other rating successes of the year included cricket audiences for two years. the ’s Play-Offs, Spanish La Following the award of four live Liga football, NFL American Football and packages of FA Premier League rights At home, the domestic Twenty20 Cup, the World Championship. to Sky in August 2003, Sky viewers will a new event in 2003, was a ratings be able to watch more live matches success, attracting audiences three times from the Barclays Premiership. Sky the size of its predecessor, the B&H Cup. Sports will show 88 live matches, 22 more than previously, with an extra 50 live matches offered on the pay-per- view service, PREMPLUS. MORE LIVE SPORT THAN EVER

Sky Sports offered more hours, more live matches and more interactivity than ever before.

18 Annual Report and Accounts 2004 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc In , a new deal was concluded for the domestic Super League, Great Britain internationals 5th ANNIVERSARY and a new Tri-Nations tournament. In boxing, a new deal with Sports Network MARKED ITS saw British World champions, Joe FIFTH ANNIVERSARY IN OCTOBER Calzaghe and , continue to “Never before have the turned-on 2003, WITH RECORD AUDIENCES UP be covered on Sky Sports. Meanwhile, 100% YEAR-ON-YEAR offered world title fights masses been presented with such featuring , Oscar De La a choice of football matches.” Hoya and Bernard Hopkins. The Independent 22 September 2003 Sky Sports News marked its fifth 4.2MILLION VIEWERS anniversary in October 2003, with record audiences, which had doubled ENGLAND’S EURO 2004 QUALIFIER AGAINST TURKEY ATTRACTED SKY’S year-on-year. The channel, which was BIGGEST-EVER AUDIENCE, AN IN-HOME the first all-new digital channel at PEAK OF 4.2 MILLION VIEWERS launch, is now available on digital terrestrial and cable services as well as on the Sky DTH platform.

Sky Sports Xtra, which launched on Sky digital in 1999, extended its reach by more than two million homes as carriage deals were concluded with and ntl.

Skysports.com also set new records, with its highest-ever, audited figures of UEFA Champions League more than 113 million page impressions Sky’s coverage attracted strong ratings, and over 3.6 million unique users in critical acclaim and praise from June 2004 (Source: ABCe). It is now governing body UEFA. established as the UK’s most–visited In the 2003-04 season Sky Sports commercial sports site. broadcast 103 live matches from the UEFA Champions League over 21 nights.

The Heineken Cup The Heineken Cup came exclusively to Sky Sports, bringing 37 live European rugby union matches.

England in the West Indies England’s historic victory in the West Indies was seen by the highest cricket audiences for two years.

All TV viewing figures sourced from BARB

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2004 19 Innovation, programming and content continued ENTERTAINMENT At Easter 2004, the combined audience for non-terrestrial television channels exceeded each of BBC One and ITV1 in total television homes.

SKY ONE AUDIENCE PROFILE At the of the Sky One schedule Jan–June 2004 Multichannel services, including Sky is the commitment to commissioning Sky One 37% 45% 18% One, ITV2 and UK Gold, reached another and developing long-standing series Total TV 28% 41% 31% landmark in March 2004, surging past like ‘Brainiac’; this is complemented

Age each of ITV1 and BBC1 to take the with a growing reputation for fast turn 16-34 35-54 55+ Source: BARB largest share of the total TV audience. around topical documentaries, such as ‘Rebecca Loos – My Story’ and ‘John This was the first time the multichannel Leslie – My Year of Hell’. networks had won the largest audience share outside the summer months, a This autumn, Sky One will launch a traditionally weak period for the five new look and a raft of top quality main terrestrial networks. acquired and original programmes. These include the critically-acclaimed In line with its ambition to be the HBO drama, ‘Deadwood’, the US ratings success ‘The 4400’ and ‘The Match’, MILLION VIEWERS home of top US programming, Sky One showcases a range of award-winning a brand-new series, mixing football 1 acclaimed shows such as ‘Nip/Tuck’, with a potent reality format. Returning NIP/TUCK AND 24 BOTH LAUNCHED ‘24’, ‘Las Vegas’, ‘Cold Case’, ‘Tru series include the eighth season of Dream SUCCESSFULLY ON SKY ONE WITH THE Calling’, ‘Angel’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Malcolm in Team and a new series of Brainiac. OPENING EPISODES BOTH ACHIEVING AN the Middle’ and the world’s favourite AVERAGE AUDIENCE OF 1.04 MILLION animated family and the most successful Sky One also provides user-friendly animation series of all time, ‘The interactive services allied to individual Simpsons’. programmes, which generate incremental revenues for Sky. ‘24’ and ‘Nip/Tuck’ During the year, Sky One achieved some fans were able to catch video recaps and of its largest ever audiences. A peak previews of the plot, as well as to access audience of more than 2 million tuned additional information about the shows, in to watch Rebecca Loos give her side and play quizzes and games. of the Beckham scandal in ‘Rebecca Loos – My Story’. In August 2003 was suspended in a perspex box, and over 2 million viewers watched the climax of the 44 day event. ‘There’s Something About Miriam’ became a global story, as Sky One followed the exploits of six lads competing for the affection of Mexican beauty, Miriam. A reality series with a stunning twist, the show was a huge success in early 2004.

The top Sky One programmes of the year were ‘David Blaine – Above the Below’ and ‘Rebecca Loos – My Story’, whose audience figures both peaked at over 2 million.

From top anticlockwise: 24 David Blaine There’s Something About Miriam Tru Calling

All TV viewing figures sourced from BARB

20 Annual Report and Accounts 2004 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc

MOVIES Sky viewers love movies. In 2003, the number of Sky Movies’ subscribers reached 5 million, and the service achieved more million+ rating films than in any other year since the launch of digital.

The central aim of Sky’s movie services SKY MOVIES’ AUDIENCE PROFILE is to satisfy the subscribers’ appetite for Jan–June 2004 movies on television by giving them Sky Movies 39% 47% 14% choice, quality and convenience. Total TV 24% 35% 41%

Age Sky Movies evolved in November 2003 16-34 35-54 55+ Source: BARB into an 11 screen service, split into nine Sky Movies screens, showing a wide variety of blockbuster movies from ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ to ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’, and two screens, showing the best classic movies from the 20th century and a new, dedicated World Cinema strand.

Sky Movies has also introduced technical innovations, such as interactive multistarts, to add further value to the movie proposition, enabling viewers to watch the biggest premieres at a time to suit them. SKY MOVIES IS OVER THREE TIMES BIGGER THAN THE UK’S ENTIRE VIDEO Skymovies.com has become one of the RENTAL SECTOR. OUR CUSTOMERS UK’s most respected movie websites WATCHED A TOTAL OF 10.5 MILLION that provides information about, and MOVIES PER WEEK IN 2003 (BY reviews of, every movie showing on HOUSEHOLD), VERSUS JUST 3 MILLION Sky Movies over the next seven days. WEEKLY VIDEO RENTALS.

Sky Box Office, the pay-per-view service, offers a choice of over 200 films each year, as well as live music, boxing and wrestling events. In the past year, From top anticlockwise: Sky Box Office has shown most of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers MOVIES/WEEK One Hour Photo the biggest theatrical movies of 2003 450 Shallow Hal including ‘Lord of the Rings: The Two SKY MOVIES SHOWS OVER 450 DIFFERENT My Big Fat Greek Wedding Towers’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. MOVIES EVERY WEEK: AROUND 8 TIMES In addition, most movies are now AS MANY AS ANY OTHER SUBSCRIBER available significantly earlier, the MOVIE SERVICE ON UK TELEVISION. gap between video and pay-per-view having halved from 6 to 3 months over the last year.

Top Sky Box Office movies 2003/04

1 Johnny English 2 Bruce Almighty 3 My Big Fat Greek Wedding MORE QUALITY 4 Men in Black II 5 Pirates of the Caribbean Sky Movies shows around 90% of the top 100 grossing 6 Die Another Day 7 Catch Me If You Can theatrical movies each year, on average around 15 months 8 Signs before they are shown on terrestrial television. 9 The Bourne Identity 10 Phone Booth

All TV viewing figures sourced from BARB

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2004 21 Innovation, programming and content continued PRODUCT INNOVATION Sky continues to lead the way in digital TV, putting viewers in control. Sky+ sales have grown during the year and feedback from Sky+ customers since it first launched in 2001 has been outstanding. The Group is constantly working to ensure that Sky offers the best TV experience available anywhere.

Sales increase Sky continued to enhance the service Since July 2003, Sky has increased the offered to all Sky+ customers. In number of Sky+ sales to 397,000. Over December 2003 the most significant 90% of customers rate their satisfaction upgrade yet was made to all Sky+ with Sky+ between 8 and 10 (on a scale boxes, adding the ability to record 9/10 of 1 to 10). two channels simultaneously, whilst Sky+ customers say they are likely watching another previously recorded Advertising campaign programme at the same time. This to recommend it to a friend. In October 2003, Sky launched the download was automatically delivered heavyweight ‘Create your own TV to all Sky+ boxes free of charge. channel’ marketing campaign aimed “… had a Sky+ box installed. Suddenly, instead of the handful of at both existing Sky digital customers Sky+ continued to attract a wide variety channels, a tsunami of programming has broken in my living room… and non-subscribers. The campaign’s of positive reviews and comments and Sky+ is a wonderful thing…” creative concept used a series of well- from the press. It was ranked number The 18 March 2004 known celebrity “odd couples”: Alice one in both ’s and The Cooper and Ronnie Corbett; Bruce Independent’s guides to gadgets “…Still the best hard drive video recorder thanks to the tight Forsyth and Kelly Brook; Simon Callow for 2003. integration of Sky’s on-screen programme guide…” and Noddy Holder; and most recently, Stuff magazine November 2003 Mike Reid and David Hasselhoff.

Sky+ advertising campaign Featuring , Ronnie Corbett, Mike Reid, David Hasselhoff, and Kelly Brook.

22 Annual Report and Accounts 2004 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc More interactivity for Sky digital viewers 5th ANNIVERSARY IN OCTOBER 2003, SKY CELEBRATED THE Sky One Active odds numbers game made famous in 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF SKY DIGITAL. JUST PRIOR TO THE ANNIVERSARY, SKY HIT THE Sky One has continued to enhance its Las Vegas. Players can play for a chance KEY TARGET OF ACHIEVING 7 MILLION most popular shows, such as ‘Dream to win the £1 million jackpot on Super SUBSCRIBERS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE. Team’, ‘24’, ‘Double or Nothing’, Keno 15. ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Stargate’ and ‘There’s Something About Miriam’, with Sky Gamestar engaging interactive services. In addition A new-look Sky Gamestar service was to voting, games and quizzes, viewers unveiled in December 2003, with an could interact with the third series of eight-screen interactive video menu, the hit drama, ‘24’. faster load times and improved navigation in addition to a range of By pressing the red button, fans of the new games. show could access exclusive highlights, character profiles, research files and an Launch of Liveplay on Gamestar essential episode guide at the touch of In June 2004, the new Liveplay service a button. launched on Sky Gamestar, enabling digital satellite viewers to play games such as Battleships and Connect 4 In September 2003, Sky Sports launched against people in other digital satellite a ground-breaking interactive service households in real time. for the UEFA Champions League, giving viewers the chance to choose from up to Launch of the National Lottery on eight simultaneous live matches. Sky Active users can now buy their Sky Vegas Live Lotto tickets without leaving the sofa Sky launched its first live interactive via the new National Lottery Service, entertainment and channel, that launched in April 2004. Players Sky Vegas Live, in March 2004. can buy up to eight weeks’ worth of Broadcasting daily from 6.00pm to tickets in advance, and no longer have 2.00am, the channel is hosted by a to worry about losing their ticket or team of presenters from a state-of-the- forgetting to check their numbers, as art virtual studio and features live tickets will be stored securely. If they programming, including the interactive win, the service will inform them the Super Keno draw based on the fixed- next time that they sign in. anniversary

From top to bottom: New look for Sky Gamestar Sky Vegas Live Launch of the National Lottery on Sky

Can you handle it? 2xSky Sky Multiroom Sky’s extra subscription offer, now called Sky Multiroom, has continued to gain popularity amongst customers, with over 128,000 taking up an extra Sky digital subscription in another room in the home in the year.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc Annual Report and Accounts 2004 23 Innovation, programming and content continued DIGITAL SATELLITE CHANNEL LINE-UP Sky’s digital satellite platform provides over 450 wide-ranging channels to over 7.4 million customers throughout the UK and Ireland. Whatever interests them, whether it’s live sport, the latest movies, award-winning breaking news, or original and innovative entertainment, Sky’s customers are offered what they want.

83 Entertainment The Biography Channel Toon Disney TMF God Channel channels Hollywood TV Playhouse Disney The Box God 2 BBC ONE Get Lucky TV Discovery Kids KISS Wonderful TV BBC TWO Classics TV CBBC Smash Hits TBN Europe ITV1 FX CBeebies Magic Revelation Sky Vegas Live Nick Jr. Q UCB TV five BBC2 Scotland POP Kerrang! TV Job Shop Sky One BBC2 W POP Plus Chart Show TV Dating Channel Sky One Mix BBC2 NI Toonami The Vault Open Access UKTV Gold BBC1 Regional (17 B4 Gay Date TV UKTV Gold +1 channels) 78 Movie channels Chat Box UKTV G2 Sky Movies 1 Classic FM TV Escape Living TV 31 News and Sky Movies 2 channel U Create & Craft Living TV +1 documentary channels Sky Movies 3 E&M TV (Exchange & BBC THREE Sky News Sky Movies 4 Mart TV) BBC FOUR Bloomberg Sky Movies 5 Flaunt Teletext Hols Plus BBC News 24 Sky Movies 6 Musicians Channel Broadband TV Challenge? BBC Parliament Sky Movies 7 (10 Pro-Shop Bravo CNBC Sky Movies 8 channels) B4U Movies Bravo +1 CNN Sky Movies 9 Music Choice Extra (30 B4U Music From top to bottom: Paramount Comedy ITV News Channel Sky Cinema 1 channels) Sony TV Asia Brainiac Paramount Comedy 2 Euro News Sky Cinema 2 News The Simpsons Sci-Fi Film Four 85 Radio channels STAR Plus Discovery Home & CCTV9 Film Four +1 PCNE Chinese Leisure Discovery Channel FilmFourWeekly 89 Specialist channels mta-muslim TV Discovery Home & Discovery Channel +1 TCM Avago Balls Zee TV Leisure +1 Discovery Travel and The Information TV Zee Music Men and Motors Adventure Sky Box Office (62 QVC Zee Cinema Discovery Civilisation channels) TV Travelshop Bangla TV Sky Travel Extra Discovery Science TV Travelshop 2 ARY Digital UKTV Style Discovery Wings 20 Sports channels TV Shop Prime TV UKTV Style +1 National Geographic Sky Sports 1 Southforyou UKTV Food National Geographic Sky Sports 2 TV Alpha EtcPun UKTV Food +1 Channel+1 Sky Sports 3 Shop America UKTV Drama Adventure One Sky Sports Xtra Lunn Poly TV ART Movies Travel Channel The History Channel MUTV Simply Shop ART Music Travel Channel 2 History +1 Sky Sports News Best Direct MBC ~ Digidol UKTV Docs GB Simply Home Abu Dhabi Discovery Health UKTV Docs +1 Eurosportnews 24hr Entertainment TV5 Artsworld BBC Parliament Motors TV Simply Ideas ATN Life TV S42 ~ 2 attheraces TV Warehouse SAB TV E4 UKTV People NASN Snatch It Record TV E4 +1 Animal Planet Extreme Sports bid-up.tv DW-TV Overload Animal Planet +1 Chelsea TV Thomas Cook TV TVEi Game Network UKTV History Golf TV Telsell Islam Channel ITV2 UKTV History +1 i Sports TV Best Direct +4 Bollywood TV You TV Community Channel Wrestling Channel Auction World Pub Channel BEN PREMPLUS Shop on TV SkyVenue Reality TV 21 Kids’ channels Thane Direct Soundtrack Channel Hallmark Cartoon Network Setanta PPV1 ShopSmart Advert Channel E! Cartoon Network Plus Setanta PPV2 TVWarehouse Vectone Urdu UKTV Bright Ideas Boomerang Vector 24/7 Vectone Bolly Ftn Nickelodeon 65 Music channels Stop+ Shop Vectone Tamil Performance Nickelodeon Replay MTV Vectone Bangla FRIENDLY TV Nick Toons TV MTV Hits Screenshop ACTV Trouble MTV 2 Factory Outlet 34 Adult channels L!VE TV Trouble Reload MTV Base JML Direct Nation217 Fox Kids MTV Dance Chase-it.tv 3 Customer channels Fashion TV Fox Kids + VH1 Vitality OBE Disney Channel VH2 Sky Travel Shop Game in TV Disney Channel +1 VH1 Classic Deal of the Day Correct as at 30.6.04

24 Annual Report and Accounts 2004 British Sky Broadcasting Group plc