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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stak who wrote (26882)	12/18/1997 8:23:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Canal Plus........................................ ijumpstart.com CORPORATE FINANCIALS <Picture><Picture><Picture> City Sings Canal Plus Praises French pay-TV operator Canal Plus has become the City's darling as Merrill Lynch moved it to a 'Buy' and a long term 'Accumulate' and Morgan Stanley predicted its French digital satellite service Canal Satellite Numerique (CSN) will be profitable by 1999. Merrill Lynch is predicting that Canal Plus' losses next year will increase to Ffr350 million (Pounds 35.3 million), mainly due to higher marketing costs at Canal Satellite. Originally, the merchant bank forecast that Canal Plus would lose Ffr25 million (Pounds 25.2 million) next year. The good news is that Canal Satellite Numerique is outselling its digital rival Television Par Satellite by about 60:40, but it has incurred huge TV advertising costs. Morgan Stanley predicted CSN would break even at Ffr158 million (Pounds 15.9 million) in 1999. The platform is predicted to have 4.4 million subscribers by 2005. Other short-term problems Merrill Lynch sees with Canal Plus involve its dealings with the Italian pay-TV platform Telepiu, which counted 928,290 subscribers at the end of September (785,458 analogue; 142,832 digital). The ownership tangle (where Canal Plus owns 45 per cent of the analogue business and 30 per cent of the digital business) should be resolved in six months. However, Merrill Lynch believes the increased interest costs could hurt Canal Plus. Meanwhile, the bank is bullish about Canal Plus' prospects in Spain, the growth potential of which Merrill Lynch says is "excellent." The platform has been growing at about 80,000 subscribers per month, with up to 500,000 reservations (versus about 153,000 installations). Canal Plus' Polish situation, however, was downgraded because of expected competition. Chrysalis Visual Brings in the Profits Despite a year when purse strings were stretched with growth and expansion, Chrysalis Visual Entertainment (CVE) posted positive numbers. For the year ending 31 August 1997, CVE posted a turnover of Pounds 36 million - a 15 per cent increase on the previous year's Pounds 32.6 million. CVE profits also increased (to Pounds 3.1 million from Pounds 1.8 million). Earlier last year, CVE launched the CVI Media Group (its joint venture with Dutch media group VNU) to expand Chrysalis' television activities in Europe. In September, the venture acquired 49 per cent of the Scandinavian company Jarowski. CVI Media Group has announced its desire to acquire 10 companies in the next five years and is looking at Spain, France, Italy and Canada. CVE also made headlines with its production slate last year, developing about 2,500 hours of TV programming including the series "Midsomer Murders" - which was sold to 25 countries), a co-production for 75 new episodes of the Australian soap "Breakers," the first season of Formula 1 for ITV, and "Rugby Express" for Channel 5.