Sky 'to announce subscription slowdown'

Sky will announce a quarter-on-quarter decrease in the number of new subscriptions this Friday, according to Broadcast today.

Net additions in the last quarter are expected to come in at just 50,000; down significantly from the previous quarter's 81,000 increase.

The figures would take Sky's total subscriber base to around 7.5 million. New chief executive James Murdoch has set a target of 8 million for the end of 2005.

In recent weeks, however, Murdoch has launched a multimillion-pound advertising campaign designed to "reintroduce" the broadcaster to consumers reluctant to take up pay TV. Figures for PVR service Sky+ are also expected to be favourable.

"All eyes will be on subscriber growth, particularly because of the aggressive marketing campaign BSkyB have embarked on," an analyst told the magazine. "The churn number will also be important as will those taking up Sky+. We expect there to be a lot of movement in the share price."