British satellite broadcaster BSkyB says it added 167,000 net TV subscribers in its second quarter to the end of December. This was at the lower end of analysts' expectations.
For the first six months of its financial year, revenues were up 11% to just under £2.5 billion, but operating profit dropped 25% to a better than expected £295m. The fall came as investment in broadband and premium programming such as Premier League soccer continued to take its toll.
This did not include a £343m one-off hit on its stake in ITV, which dragged it into a £112m loss. The British government recently ordered BSkyB to reduce its 17.9% stake below 7.5% because of competition concerns.
Churn, or the percentage of total customers who dropped their subscription, was reduced to 10%. BSkyB added 260,000 broadband customers to take its total to 1.2 million.
BSkyB said it added 22,000 Irish digital subscribers in the last three months of 2007 to bring the total to 535,000.
