Sky has insisted that it is still on track to reach 8 million subscribers by the end of the year, despite reporting a slowdown in takeup.

Delivering its first quarter results - covering the three months ended September 30 - the broadcaster announced net additions of 57,000 for a total of 7.844 million subscribers. The figure is down from 62,000 on the equivalent period in 2004 and 83,000 on the previous quarter.

The gross number of additions was actually 286,000 - but churn rose from 10.5% in 2004 to a more concerning 11.7%.

Despite the slowdown, Sky is confident of netting 156,000 subscribers before the year is up, having last year managed 192,000.

Meanwhile, the number of Sky+ households passed the magic one million milestone in the quarter, with 139,000 additions to a total of 1.027 million. Multiroom households were up 103,000 to 748,000.

"The team has met or over-achieved core performance measures including sales, operating profit and earnings per share, notwithstanding an increase in churn," said James Murdoch, CEO at BSkyB. "We remain on track for our 2005 and 2010 targets."