BSkyB posted better-than-expected first-half operating profit after the British pay-TV operator sold an increasing number of HD TV services and more on-demand movies and box-sets at Christmas, in part offsetting higher sports rights costs.

The company reported operating profit for the six months to end-December of £595 million, down 8 per cent, on revenue up 7.6 per cent to £3.75 billion, broadly in line with expectations.

Profit at Britain’s dominant pay-TV provider is being squeezed by higher costs for sports rights and marketing as it fends off more aggressive competition from BT and TalkTalk.

But Sky said it was continuing to add subscriptions for services like HD TV, with connections for its Sky+HD boxes up 1 million in the second quarter to 4.4 million, and had seen a threefold increase in On Demand usage.

Subscribers took 873,000 new products, such as HD TV and broadband, in the second quarter, which includes Christmas, beating market expectations of 731,000 total product additions.

Sky said the total number of Sky+HD boxes connected in Ireland is now over 112,000. In addition, approximately 3,000 Irish customers a week are connecting their HD boxes to broadband in order to access on demand services.

Reuters