LONDON -- The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered and annuity rates have plunged. There's no sign of things improving anytime soon, either, as the eurozone and the U.K. economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth.

In this series, I'm tracking down the U.K. large caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE 100 over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund (you can see the companies I've covered so far on this page).

Today, I'm going to take a look at British Sky Broadcasting Group (LSE: BSY.L) , the satellite broadcaster with more than 10 million subscribers in the U.K.

Getting the picture

To start with, let's take a look at how BSkyB has performed against the FTSE 100 over the last 10 years:

Total Return

2007

2008

2009

More here:
Is BSkyB the Ultimate Retirement Share?