The statement sent the shares jumping 26p to 707p. Chris Hampson, chairman, told shareholders that the next stage of the company's programme of delivering value to shareholders was possible because of the company's "continuing excellent performance".He added: "The board intends to keep the issue of further returns of value to shareholders under review." This comes just days after some analysts forecast a fresh shareholder bonanza from utilities hoping to pre-empt a possible windfall profit tax levied by an incoming Labour government.Yorkshire Electricity is also asking shareholders for approval to buy back up to10 per cent of its shares.Mr Hampson, who chairs one of only three of the original 12 electricity suppliers not to have received a takeover bid amid a wave of offers for the cash-rich companies, said customer prices were the lowest in the country.Yorkshire Electricity said it was cutting domestic and small-business customers' prices by 6.8 per cent on average from yesterday."Our track record of delivering increased efficiency, offering the lowest prices for average general domestic customers and providing excellent returns to our shareholders, underlines our commitment to being among the most successful companies in the sector," Mr Hampson said.. The group plans to raise total dividends in the following year, 1997/98, by another 7 per cent, it added at its annual shareholder meeting. Yorkshire Electricity, one of only five remaining independent regional electricity companies, plans to buy back10 per cent of its shares and raise its dividend next year by a third to 52.66p per share. But sources close to the negotiations warned there were still disagreements over key issues, including Channel 5's demand that cable operators provide guarantees that they will complete a given number of retunings by a specified date."Channel 5 has promised the Independent Television Commission that it will complete the exercise in advance of the launch date," a senior source at a leading cable operator said. "Such undertakings haven't got anything to do with us, and we don't want to be involved in commitments to the ITC."Under the terms of its licence, Channel 5, owned by Pearson Television, United News & Media and CLT, is required to retune 90 per cent of homes in the reception areas before starting transmissions.. The offer could end the stalemate in negotiations between Channel 5 and several cable companies, and may allow a blanket retuning deal for as many as 1 million cable homes to be announced within weeks. Channel 5, headed by chief executive Ian Ritchie, had been hoping to convince leading operators to handle the retuning exercise in their respective franchise areas, as part of plans to visit 9.6 million homes to prepare receiving equipment for the launch. Millions of VCRs and televisions have to be adjusted to ensure there is no interference when the fifth and final mainstream television channel is introduced 1 January.The retuning project, involving 7,000 engineers and 380 staff at a special call centre, is already known to be severely over the initial budget of pounds 55m, but farming out the work could take some of the pressure off Channel 5's own specially recruited staff.The cable talks had foundered mainly on price, with Channel 5 offering as little as pounds 2.50 a household.

Channel 5 Broadcasting has offered to pay cable operators at least pounds 10 a household to retune video recorders in their franchise areas in advance of the launch of the fifth terrestrial channel next year, writes Mathew Horsman. Kirch and BSkyB launched their German service last weekend, with 17 channels, and plan to add more in the course of the coming year.Separately, BSkyB has said it would introduce digital television in the UK late next year, and has confirmed it would welcome an equity investment by Kirch.BSkyB is expected to use its experience with Kirch in the German market to fine-tune plans to launch digital satellite services in the UK. Its initial goal is to offer as many as 200 channels, many of them devoted to pay-per view film and sport services.. It last announced sales figures a month ago of around 40,000, and since then, a deathly silence.I'd offer to buy the company for 2.5p myself, but only if it comes without the liabilities.. Canal Plus has called off its pay-TV joint venture with Bertelsmann, the German media giant, following weeks of tension and disagreement. The two insisted yesterday, however, that they would continue to pursue other common projects in the media sector, and that their decision should be seen more as a separation than a divorce. The move follows a chess game of great complexity among the Continent's main pay-TV hopefuls, particularly in the potentially lucrative German market.The seeds of the dispute between Canal Plus, operator of France's digital pay-TV network, and Bertelsmann date from the German company's announcement earlier this year that it would merge its TV interests with those of CLT, the Luxembourg-based broadcaster that has established a competing pay- TV service in France.The situation was further complicated by the swift moves of BSkyB, the UK cable and satellite broadcaster, which joined a grand alliance made up of Bertelsmann, Canal Plus and Havas early this year, only to dump the group in favour of an equity joint venture with Bertelsmann's chief German rival, the Bavarian mogul Leo Kirch.Since then, Bertelsmann has dropped attempts to develop a competing digital TV platform in Germany, and instead will support a plan to add the Premiere pay-TV channels, in which it has a 37.5 per cent stake, into the Kirch DF-1 digital bouquet.As part of the truce with Kirch, Bertelsmann is also prepared to sell half its Premiere stake to BSkyB, in a bid to cement the new relationship.If agreed, the deal will see Premiere split among four companies - Kirch, Bertelsmann, Canal Plus and BSkyB.The digital TV market has expanded rapidly, both in the US and in continental Europe. On being asked where he had been, Mr O'Brien happily explained - at the secret talks with the Action Group.No change there, then, The Lime Street insurance market has always been as leaky as a sieve.The administrators trying to sort out the Sunday Business newspaper are now touting it for sale.