Return to loss at Flextech

FLEXTECH, the supplier of basic tier pay-TV channels such as UK Gold and Living, blamed the rapid consumer take-up of digital television, in response to free set-top box offers, for a return to losses in the first half.

The interim pre-tax loss before tax was pounds 2.9m compared with a pre-tax profit of pounds 1.7m a year ago. Sales narrowed 2.5 per cent to pounds 62.5m. "The transition to digital is faster than expected," said Adam Singer, chairman and chief executive. "But this is not a bad problem to have. It means every digital home receives some Flextech channels."

The stock closed down 73.5p at 981.5p.