Television

Tristan O'Carroll, mediaweek.co.uk, 30 July 2009, 10:14am

BSkyB's pay-TV business posts best results since 2004

LONDON - BSkyB's ad revenues dipped by 6% year on year in the 12 months to 30 June, although its core business, satellite pay-TV, posted its best financial year for five years, adding 462,000 new subscribers.

Sky: best pay-TV results in five years

Unveiling its results for the three months to 30 June, BSkyB said net customer growth stood at 124,000 in the second quarter of this year, taking its total to 9.44 million. Over the 12 months to 30 June, BSkyB said its annual net additions stood at 462,000, the highest in five years.

Referring to what it labelled "cyclical headwinds in advertising", BSkyB said ad revenue - which makes up a relatively small part of total revenue - was impacted by weakness in the broader market and fell by 6% to £308m.

However, it said "this represents a good outperformance of the overall TV sector, which we estimate fell by 13% over the same period".

It highlighted strong demand for Sky+HD, noting 534,000 Sky+HD net additions since January to reach 1.31 million. It also flagged strong growth in Sky+, with the number of households using the service increasing to to 5.5 million or 58% of its satellite subscriber base.

Meanwhile, it said 16% of customers now take all three TV, broadband and telephony services, up from 11% at 30 June 2008.

Adjusted revenue was up 7% to £5.3bn, with reported revenue of £5.4bn over the year to 30 June. ARPU stood at £464 and adjusted operating profit was up by 4% to £780m.

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All Comments

JAMES SMYTHE - 30 July 2009

I wish these consumers would make their minds up...

On 10th June, MW published research that suggested "More than a quarter of consumers plan to reduce or cancel their satellite or cable TV subscriptions... up from 15% six months ago"

Looks like this recession has revealed multi-channel HDTV to be a basic necessity in the minds of today's consumer ;)