BSkyB customer base to rise to 10 million next year

British Sky Broadcasting emerged stronger as the leader in the pay-television segment on greater than expected demand for high-definition televisions services added a net 94,000 new customers in the first quarter of its financial year.

With the latest addition the company's customer base rose to 9.54 million even as investment costs increased from consumers switching to higher-margin HDTV in large numbers. According to Jerem Darroch, chief executive, he expected subscriber numbers to reach 10 million next year.
He said that the company's overall consumer environment has not changed over the summer saying that BSkyB was not complacent even after group revenue rose 10 per cent to £1.4 billion.

The group added 287,000 new customers in the quarter for its high-definition TV service, which constituted a threefold increase from a year ago, to take its customer base for the service to 1.6 million.

The number of consumers opting for combined television, telephony and broadband packages rose to 17 per cent of all customers as against 12 per cent last year.

Average revenue per user increased ?39 year-on-year to ?469.

The company's operating profit rose 11 per cent to ?198 million with pre-tax profit rising from ?129 to ?180 after lower financing costs and an impairment charge taken a year ago. Earnings per share increased from 4.2 p to 7.3 p.