Sky’s profits rise

Satellite pay-TV giant BSkyB today recorded better-than-expected subscriber figures, announcing it had added 192,000 customers in the last three months of 2004. That was ahead of all analyst forecasts, which on average predicted around 150,000 new customers, and took the group’s total subscriber numbers in the UK and Ireland to more than 7.6 million.
It means Sky needs to add fewer than 100,000 new customers in each quarter this year to meet its target of 8 million subscribers by the end of 2005.

The BSkyB chief executive, James Murdoch, was also encouraged by a 35% increase in the number of households signing up to the Sky Plus personal video recorder service, a rise of 168,000 to 642,000.
Sky+, which allows viewers to pause and rewind live TV as well as record shows to a built-in hard drive, is seen as a crucial tool in increasing customer loyalty and driving up the average revenue the company receives per subscriber.