Amstrad gets a boost from BSkyB

ELECTRONICS firm Amstrad today gave investors a second dose of good news in a fortnight as it announced that media giant BSkyB had started taking supplies of its new range of satellite TV set-top boxes several months ahead of schedule.

The computer firm founded by Sir Alan Sugar said last month it hoped to start shipping the new Sky+ boxes by the end of June. 'We are pleased to have got final approval early,' said commercial director Simon Sugar.

Early deliveries should result in better-than-expected profits for the second half of the financial year. BSkyB is currently on a marketing push for the new boxes.

In its half-year figures two weeks ago Amstrad surprised the market by showing it was turning a profit from its e-m@iler business, the phone-cum-internet gadget, six months ahead of projections.

Shares in Amstrad are likely to rally today as the financial benefits of beginning Sky+ deliveries should start to show in second-half figures rather than next financial year as the market had expected.

Amstrad now enters the PVR (personal video recorder) market of new-generation set-top boxes - satellite receivers with a hard drive to record multiple programmes into computer memory - dominated by rival Pace Micro Technology.

'In time, we see the PVR becoming the standard piece of equipment in homes in the same way the VCR has,' Sugar said.