Sky beats expectations, adds customers

Sky has beaten City expectations by adding 90,000 customers net in the three months to June. The media group now has 8.582m customers, up 17% year-on-year.

Within those total numbers, Sky is making headway in attracting households to sign up to higher-end services: 28% of its subscriber base, equating to 2.374m households, now takes Sky+ and there are now 292,000 households taking Sky HD. TV churn stood at 12.1% on an annualised basis with the company reporting underlying churn of approximately 10.8%. It was in broadband, however, that Sky saw particularly strong growth; year on year, Sky Broadband has added 259,000 subscribers, taking the service to a total of 716,000 at the end of June.

"Our transformation continues to gather pace," said chief executive James Murdoch. "Today we are adding new customers at the fastest rate since analogue switch-off; we are adding more broadband customers than any other provider; and we are the only major residential telephony provider growing its customer base.

"Looking forward, we will continue to grow our share of an enlarged sector opportunity by delivering a superior customer experience, investing in the products and services customers want and by continuing to offer exceptional value to all our customers."

Source: Digital Spy