UK programmer Flextech’s move from a modest profit (pounds 1.7 million for 1998) to a loss (pounds 2.9 million to June 1999), revealed the week before last, came about largely because of the rapid increase in BSkyB’s digital subscribers, according to chairman and CEO Adam Singer. Flextech receives significantly less for each digital subscriber compared to an analogue sub. "We would save about u34 million a year once we switch analogue off," Singer told Interspace. "That’s a lot of money. We’d like to see analogue switched off as soon as possible, provided we can sort out our Astra contracts."

Singer hinted that his analogue service could be closed well before satellite subscriber numbers are down to 200,000-300,000 homes. "It takes a lot of subs to pay a u4.5 million per annum transponder cost," he said. "This has not been thought of and it may be that the cut off point on satellite is much higher than had previously been imagined and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens."

Flextech’s ad-revenues grew 30 per cent against market growth averages of 20 per cent. Its UKTV joint-venture saw revenues boosted 52.9 per cent to pounds 34.4 million, with flagship channel UK Gold’s operating profits up 66.5 per cent to pounds 9.1 million. Out has gone the loss-making Playboy TV (sold in March this year) and in comes a 25 per cent stake in Multimap, which provides online maps and guides.

The past year has also seen frequent reports of Flextech supposedly moving in on Live TV and/or Granada Sky Broadcasting’s channels. "The next thing to ask whether there are individual channels which we can go out and buy to help aggregate scale. The answer is there are a few and they will eventually come our way," said Singer. On the question of Flextech’s timetable, he said: "Once those that own them feel that it is no longer worth coping with the pain of being a standalone channel any more." Specifically on GSkyB, Singer said: "Nobody has better or more efficient scale in terms of basic programming economics in thematic channels than us, so some sort of relationship ought to make sense at some point. And this applies not just to GSkyB, but to anyone."

On the question of the absence on satellite of ITV1 (and on cable and satellite of ITV2), Singer was scathing: "The great mistake they are making is not to grab the maximum real estate that they and ITV 2 can take now. But what will happen when every home is a digital home?"