BSkyB reports 9% profit increase as it outlines plans to expand connected box roll out and content delivery increase
BskyB has reported an operating profit increase of nine per cent during the last year, reaching £1.33m, and a paid-for subscriptions for products increase of 3.3m.
The satellite broadcaster saw paid-for subscriptions rise to 31.6 million over the last year, leading to an increase in revenue of seven per cent to £7.235m.
In releasing its figures the company also revealed plans to increase its product delivery channels, claiming that over a quarter of its TV customers, 2.7 million people, had connected Sky+HD boxes to broadband, while its mobile video service Sky Go saw a 19 per cent growth in quarterly users, reaching 3.3 million. The new Sky Go Extra service, asking Sky Go customers to pay £5 for more content, had also been taken up by 166,000 people, it added.
The strategy will see BSkyB roll-out connected boxes across its customer base and release a NOW TV internet connected device for TVs for under £10. Ten new channels will be added to Sky Go next year and more than 20 new channels will be added to its Catch Up TV service, increasing the number of hours available by around half.
Jeremy Darroch, CEO of BskyB, described the growth as “very good” as he highlighted the delivery of over a million product additions.
“In our television business, there has been an excellent response from customers to our new services,” he said. “We’ve seen an explosion in on-demand and mobile viewing as more people connect their Sky boxes to broadband and watch TV on laptops and mobile devices with Sky Go. Sky Go Extra, our new subscription service, has already attracted more than 150,000 customers in just five months. “
He went on to say that the company expected the consumer environment to remain “challenging” over the year ahead, but that it planned to extend its offering across on-screen, in-home communications and front-line service delivery. New service growth would also be accelerated as well.
The company also revealed that its Sky Store video rentals had experienced growth of 200 per cent, while there had been a five-fold increase in on-demand downloads on this time last year.