Sky growth exceeds expectations

Sky added 192,000 subscribers in the three months ended December 31, the broadcaster confirmed Wednesday.

The company had been expected to post growth figures of between 160,000 and 180,000 following an agressive Christmas marketing campaign.

The news means that Sky's subscriber base now stands at 7,609,000 - keeping it on track for its target of 8 million subscribers by the end of this year.

Also impressive were the numbers for PVR service Sky+, which added a record 168,000 subscribers to total 642,000. Multiroom households rose 116,000 to 473,000.

The churn figure - which measures the proportion of subscribers leaving the service - stood at 9.3%, a decrease of 0.3% on the equivalent period in 2003. ARPU, meanwhile, rose £9 to £386.

"The business delivered a strong set of financial results in the first half year with good sales and profit growth," said Sky CEO James Murdoch. "During the quarter, we launched a number of important initiatives consistent with the long-term growth strategy we outlined in August 2004.

"We have a full programme of work ahead of us in 2005, including the continued roll-out of our segmentation project and implementation of new customer management systems. We will continue to develop these and other initiatives in pursuit of our long-term strategic goals and targets."