Sky profits fall but company "on track"

Operating losses at Sky Broadband and Easynet Enterprise contributed to a fall in Sky's profits for the six months ended December 31, 2006, the company revealed today.

In its interim results, Sky reported an operating profit of £336m, down from £414m in the same period last year. That figure beat market expectations and included a net operating loss of £73m from Sky Broadband and £11m from Easynet Enterprise. Revenue for the period was £2.22bn, up from £2.02bn in the 6 months to December 2005.

"In the last six months we have achieved a number of important milestones in building our business for the future," said Sky chief executive James Murdoch. "We're on track for our targets and our expansion into broadband and telephony positions us well to take advantage of a growing opportunity in a £20bn industry."

Sky ended the period with 8.441m total customers, with net customer growth in the second quarter of 183,000. The number of net customer additions was lower than expected, which Sky attributed to the reduction and removal of viewing package discounts. Churn increased to 11.9% during the period.

1.97m households now take Sky+, with 2.13m Sky+ boxes distributed. The company has 184,000 Sky HD subscribers and had 259,000 activated Sky Broadband customers as of January 28, 2007.