Sky Delivers Full-Year Profit

LONDON: BSkyB has emerged from its year-ago loss of £127 million to record a profit of £259 million for the period ending June 30, 2009, on revenues of £5.4 billion.

The platform recorded a net customer growth of 124,000 in the fourth quarter, ending the period with 9.442 million subscribers. Net additions in the year totaled 462,000, its highest in five years. ARPU reached a new high of £464, driven by the success of Sky+HD and continued expansion of the broadband and telephony bases. At the end of the period, there were 5.5 million Sky+ customers, 1.8 million multiroom customers, 1.3 million HD subscribers, 2.2 million broadband clients and 1.85 million telephony users.

Announcing the results, Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of Sky, noted: "2009 has been an excellent year of growth. In a tough economic environment, customers are turning to Sky for quality and value in home entertainment and communications. New customers are joining us as the fastest rate for five years and existing customers are taking more products from Sky than ever before."

He continued: "Our approach to business is based on making careful choices and spending wisely. We focus hard on operational efficiency and cost reduction, while investing where customers see the greatest value, such as high-quality content and product innovation."