Sky Posts Q3 Net Profit

LONDON: With its revenues for the third quarter up by 12 percent to £1.4 billion, BSkyB returned a profit for the period, of £3 million, as compared with its £6 million loss in Q3 last year.

In the nine months to March 31, 2009, meanwhile, revenues were up by 7 percent to £3.96 billion, with an after-tax profit of £169 million. Highlights for the period include net customer growth of 80,000 to reach 9.318 million homes. The platform now has more than 1 million homes taking its HD service, with 243,000 additions in the period. The Sky+ base grew by 406,000 to reach 5 million. The platform reports that 15 percent of its customer base, or 1.4 million customers, now take TV, broadband and telephony services.

"We have made a strong start to calendar 2009," said Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB’s chief executive. "In difficult times, customers are making careful choices and responding to the combination of quality and value that we offer. Over 9.3 million families now choose Sky and they are taking more products from us than ever."

He continued: "Looking ahead to the rest of calendar 2009, we expect conditions to remain challenging. In this environment, and at a time when people are spending more time at home, we will continue to provide our customers great entertainment and money-saving broadband and telephony. At the same time, we will stay focused on cost efficiency to allow us to invest sensibly in areas that drive long-term value for the business, such as high definition, with the objective of emerging stronger from the downturn."