BSkyB deal sends shares in Amstrad 14% higher

Amstrad, Sir Alan Sugar's once mighty electronics business, had good news for investors yesterday, unveiling plans to make more equipment for BSkyB's booming digital TV business. Its shares climbed 14 per cent to 36.5p.

Amstrad said it had won a contract to manufacture set-top boxes that also record programmes with a built-in video recorder for Sky+, the service which started to offer digital TV customers the dual-function boxes in September 2001.

Amstrad will also supply Sky with keyboards for digital televisions which contain remote control panels.

Amstrad is Sky's oldest supplier of digital television equipment. The two new agreements come on top of an existing contract signed in 1988, when the first satellite television channels were made available to UK consumers in analogue format. Under that deal, Amstrad continues to supply set-top boxes that do not have any other functions.

When Sky+ was launched, it awarded the manufacturing contract solely to Pace. Amstrad will now share the work in developing one of the most popular digital TV gadgets on the market.

Sky+ boxes can record 20 hours of programmes without video tapes, automatically record every episode of a series and pause and rewind live TV.

Amstrad receives 90 per cent of its sales revenues from making satellite TV equipment.