Business News Holding

Tag: satellite-broadcaster

  • BSkyB's Revenues Rise As HD Subscribers Double


    It’s taken a while but HDTV seems to have firmly established itself in the UK – underlined by the latest surge in subscriber numbers for BSkyB.

    The satellite broadcaster has seen its HD base leap to more than one million subscribers – up 32 per cent on the previous quarter and more than double the 465,000 who signed up last year.

    The strong uptake of its Sky+ HD service played a big part in increasing BSkyB’s Q3 revenues to GBP £1.4bn – up by 12 per cent compared with Q3 2008.

    Pre-tax profits grew 13 per cent to GBP £63m (USD $93m).

    Sky+ HD subscribers rose by 243,000 in Q3 2009, helped by a cut in the price of the HD set-top boxes from GBP £150 to £49.

    This decision cost the broadcaster around GBP £60m in upront cost but resulted in increased revenues from more expensive subscriptions.

    Average annual revenue per customer rose 7 per cent to GBP £452.

    Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB’s CEO, said the subscriber increase was generated by a growing trend towards HD among customers, alongside its HD box strategy.

  • Sky now boasts 500,000 HD subscribers

    Satellite operator posts final results with revenue up and subscribers approaching 9 million

    Sky+ HD was taken by 33,000 new customers in the UK over the last three months, pushing the premium high-definition PVR to a total customer base of nearly 500,000.

    Nearly 9m people now subscribe to Sky after the company added more customers than expected over the last three months.
    Publishing results for its full financial year, Sky said it had 8.98m subscribers in total with net customer additions over the last three months coming in ahead of analyst expectations at 92,000.

    Revenue for the full year stood at £4.95m, up 9 per cent on the year before, receiving a boost from an 11 per cent uptick in retail subscription revenue to £3.77m.

    Its adjusted operating profit was £752m, down 2 per cent from the year before and attributed to continuing investment in its broadband operations.

    Jeremy Darroch, Sky CEO, said growth was still strong despite a more difficult consumer environment.
    “More customers are choosing Sky for a broader range of products and are staying with us for longer,” he said.

    The HD figure reflects take-up prior to Sky’s reduction in the Sky+ HD price from £249 to £150 effective from July 1.
    Sky noted that quarterly annualised churn has been brought down to 9.8 per cent, its lowest level since 2005.

    Average revenue per customer reached a new high of £427 on the back of continued strong take-up of its premium upsell products such as Sky+ and Sky+ HD.

    Revenue had also been improved with its push into bundle selling, with 11 per cent of its customer base now taking its “triple play” package of TV, broadband and fixed-line telephony.