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Business of TV Sport
Sportel Monaco 2011

I-Cable issues profit warning

Hong Kong telecoms company I-Cable Communications today said that it expects to make as a loss in the first six months of the year, largely because of the high cost of sports programming.
The group said that its pay-television arm had shown “satisfactory growth” in both subscriber numbers and revenue, driven by its coverage of the Fifa World Cup, the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the Uefa Champions League. But there was “a significant mismatch of timing” between the operating expenses and revenue from these investments.

I-Cable’s sports programming costs will increase further later this year with the start of a new new three-year deal for English Premier League football.