BSkyB profits up 39.5%

BSkyB has reported a 39.5% rise in pre-tax profits to £180 million in the three months to the end of September.

Putting in a robust performance, it added 94,000 new customers during the quarter – an 8% increase year on year – with its total subscriber base hitting 9.54 million.

This includes 1.6 million households with Sky+ HD, with 287,000 signing up to the service in the quarter. It also added 100,000 new broadband customers.

Adjusted operating profits were up 9% year on year to £198 million.

Jeremy Darroch, BSkyB chief executive, said: “Our business has made a good start to our 2010 financial year with another quarter of strong results.

“In what continues to be a tough economic environment, we have increased the number of customers joining Sky. High definition has continued to perform very well and more customers are saving money by choosing Sky for each of TV, broadband and telephony.”

The company said that in terms of TV advertising it had outperformed the UK market as a whole – down 13% in the third quarter – falling 4% to £65 million.