Sky remains on target to reach its goal of 10 million subscribers by 2010, but the satellite broadcaster was hit by a £343 million charge from its ITV holding, leading to a first half loss of £112m.
Business secretary John Hutton last week concurred with the Competition Commission that the stake could distort the market and should be sold. Sky has three weeks to appeal and new CEO Jeremy Darroch said this was still under consideration.
However, amid the rising cost of Premier League football and investment in telephony and broadband, Sky was able to increase revenues by 11% to £2.45 nillion.
Net customer growth in the quarter to December 31, 2007 was 167,000 and the total subscriber base grew to 8.832 million. Churn was reduced to 10% and the broadcaster enjoyed record ARPU of £421.
A record also for the Sky+ PVR, which increased by 434,000 to 3.131 million, and HD added 64,000 households to reach 422,000. Sky Broadband increased by 28% and is now in 1.199 million homes.
