Another quarter, another set of sparkling results from BSkyB.

The first set under new CEO James Murdoch is headlined by the news revealed last month: the passing of the milestone 7 million subscriber mark.

Overall, Sky Digital subscriptions rose by 170,000 in the quarter ended September 30 to 7,015,000, some three months earlier than originally expected.

The key ARPU figure, measuring the average amount of revenue the company will receive from a subcriber in one year, stood at £366, a rise of £18 in one year. Sky will edge closer towards its £400 target in 2005 by upping subscription costs in January.

By September 30 there were 121,000 Sky+ subscribers - a rise of 15%, while 184,000 subscribers had taken up the extra digibox offer. One day later Sky implemented the removal of its monthly Sky+ subscription fee; since then, it says, the average number of daily bookings has "significantly increased."

On the company's balance sheet were DTH revenues of £628m (up 17%), programming costs of £367m, marketing costs of £90m and profit after tax of £90m.

"The current financial year has started well and we continue to grow both subscribers and revenues," said Murdoch. "In particular, the most significant achievements are the doubling of operating profit and the considerable increase in profit margin."