BSkyB Reports Strong Q1 Results

LONDON: Operating profit was up 5 percent at BSkyB for the three months ending September 30, with revenue up 4 percent. 

Operating profit reached £310 million ($500 million). Revenue was £1.7 billion ($2.7 billion). 

Subscriber growth did slow, increasing by 20,000 quarter-on-quarter to reach 10.3 million subs. The number of HD subscribers was up by 125,000 to 4.4 million. The triple-play base has grown by 19 percent year-on-year, at 3.5 million. Sky Go increased its unique users by 75 percent to 2.8 million. Programming costs were up £54 million year-on-year, due in large part to Formula One, Ryder Cup and Olympic coverage. 

Jeremy Darroch, chief executive, commented: “We have made a strong start to the year, delivering another good quarterly performance and continuing to position the business for the long term. Our investment in high quality content and innovative services has delivered excellent levels of loyalty and generated good growth in customers and products. At the same time, we continue to drive improvements in efficiency, reliability and customer service throughout our operations. This approach continues to generate strong financial results with good growth in revenues and earnings. Looking forward, whilst we continue to see a challenging consumer environment in the U.K. and Ireland, we are well positioned to execute our plans for the year.”