Sky Revenues, Profit Up in First Half

LONDON: For the first half of the year, British satellite platform BSkyB posted revenues of £2.9 billion, a 10-percent increase on the year-ago period, with a net profit of £256 million, a 54-percent increase.

The platform now has 9.7 million subscribers, with 172,000 net additions in the year. The Sky+HD base has topped 2 million homes, with net additions of 482,000, while the SD Sky+ box has 6.45 million customers with 553,000 net additions. BSkyB says that 18 percent of its customers now take the triple-play package of TV, broadband and telephony.

“It has been another good quarter in what remains a tough environment, with more customers joining Sky and strong demand across our entire product range," said Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive. "The standout performance came in high-definition TV with almost half a million customers choosing Sky+HD for our best home entertainment service."

He continued: "While the economic outlook remains uncertain, we remain well positioned with high-quality products offering customers great value for money. This year, we intend to build on our success by bringing our leading HD box technology to even more customers. From today, we will start selling HD-enabled boxes as standard and customers will receive the box for free when they subscribe to our HD pack of channels. These are important steps which will allow us to grow more efficiently and further accelerate the pace of innovation for customers."