Sky increases HD customer base by 47% year-on-year

Sky has posted its figures for the last three months (Q3), showing an increase in total customers of 51,000 driven by growth for broadband and HD.

Some 26% of Sky customers now receive Sky broadband, telephone and TV services from Sky, helping to grow revenue by 14% year-on-year.

While net additions were down compared to the previous year, Sky has boosted the number of people with Sky HD to 3.7 million, 47% higher than last year, and the number of customers with Sky broadband to 3.2 million.

The Sky Atlantic channel has recorded "10 million viewers in the first two months", though how these figures are recorded isn't entirely clear.

Similarly, viewing figures for Premier League and Champions League football were up year-on-year.

Sky has diversified, too, with the Sky News for iPad proving popular, recording 100,000 downloads in its first week, making it the most downloaded free app on iTunes.

While the company reported a net profit of £174 million for the period, this was down from £286m in 2010 due to last year's forced sale of a stake in broadcaster ITV.

However revenue was up 13% to £1.65 billion and operating profit was up 5% to £261m

The announcement comes as the proposed takeover of BSkyB by News Corp continues to be scrutinised by the regulatory body.

Follow whathifi.com on Twitter.
Join us on Facebook.

Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is Content Director for T3 and What Hi-Fi?, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for more than 15 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).