Record growth of 323,000 new Sky+ households to 2.697 million topped Sky’s first quarter financials as the satellite platform added a net 83,000 customers – the highest for four years – to bring its installed base to 8.665 million. One million households have been added by the PVR product in the past year.
Sales to the high definition product also rose, by 66,000, to 323,000. Sky Broadband, already confirmed as passing the one million mark, reached 933,000 in the quarter ending September 30, 2007.
The company reported an 11% increase in revenues to £1.18 billion. The £150 million profit was below market expectations resulting from increased programming costs and investment in its broadband service.
While churn was reduced from 12.1% in June to 11.3% in September, its lowest level for five quarters, annualised ARPU (Average Revenue Per Unit) fell by £1 to £441 as a result of the loss of the Prem Plus PPV football package.
The withdrawal of Sky’s basic channels from Virgin Media also continues to hurt, contributing a loss of £10 million out of a £15 million fall in wholesale revenues, and a further impact against advertising revenues.
