Sky booms in the economic downturn

Sky is set to reduce the cost of its Sky+ HD set-top box and take on 1000 more staff in a bid to get more people to sign up for high definition TV.

The satellite broadcaster added 171,000 customers in the second quarter of 2008, taking its total customer base to 9.2 million – over 50% of them have also signed up to Sky+ or Sky+ HD now, according to Sky’s half yearly report.

Sky claims it has strengthened its on-screen offering with 17 new HD channels and important rights renewals in sports, films and entertainment.

More than 7 million households already have HD-ready TV sets, which Sky hopes to double by the end of the decade by slashing the cost of a Sky+ HD box by two-thirds to just £49.

Sky also plans to recruit 1000 more staff and open a call centre in Leeds to kick-start its major push for HD viewers – the company said it needs around 600 engineers and 400 call centre staff to meet the anticipated demand for new HD services.

In the three months to the end of December, Sky gained 188,000 new HD customers, which is double the rate of the first-quarter additions and five times the rate compared with Q4 2007.

Sky’s positive half yearly report comes just a day after Thinkbox released its TV viewing report, which shows that TV viewing reached a record high last year (see TV viewing reaches a record high).

However, Sky also enjoyed significant increases in other areas, including both broadband and home telephony services.

Sky is now the UK’s fastest growing broadband provider and home telephone service, with 1.96 million Sky Broadband customers and 1.50 million Sky Talk customers.

As a result, Sky’s revenue for the six months to the end of December 2008 increased by 6% to £2,601 million, generating operating profits of around £385 million.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, said: “In a very challenging environment, we have delivered a great set of results by focusing on quality, value and service for our customers. Overall customer growth is up year on year and we are selling more products across the board, including record growth in Sky+ HD.”

Sky: 08702 40 40 40 www.sky.com