Sky Reports Half-Year Gains

LONDON: With revenues up by 6 percent for the second half of 2008 to £2.6 billion and a profit of £166 million, BSkyB has announced plans to create 1,000 new jobs, with a particular focus on driving sign-ups to its HD offering.

The satellite platform has dropped the price of its HD set-top box to £49 as part of its efforts to bump up subscriptions to its high-definition TV service, which now carries more than 30 channels. Overall, Sky reported a net customer growth of 171,000 in the second quarter, bringing its customer base to 9.24 million, more than half of which subscribe to the Sky+ (4.65 million) or Sky+ HD (779,000) DVR services. The subscriber base also includes 1.7 million multiroom customers, 1.96 million broadband customers and 1.5 million telephony customers. Churn was down to 9.9 percent, and ARPU rose to £444.

"In a very challenging economic environment, we have delivered a great set of results by focusing on quality, value and service for our customers," said Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive. "Overall customer growth is up year on year and we are selling more products across the board, including record growth in Sky+HD….We enter 2009 in a strong position. Against a very difficult and uncertain economic backdrop, we will continue to focus our efforts on providing customers with more of what they want: the very best of entertainment and home communications at great value, backed up by great service."