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Business of TV Sport
Sportel Monaco 2011

BSkyB closes in on 10 million subscriber target

UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB added 90,000 subscribers net in the three months to end-June, taking it to 9.86 million.
The figure compares poorly to the 124,000 added in the same quarter last year, but Sky is still on course to reach its target of 10 million subscribers before the end of the year. Churn during the quarter was 10.5 per cent, up from 9.9 per cent last year.

Take-up of high-definition (HD) subscriptions is booming, with 429,000 additions in the last quarter, compared to 291,000 in the same quarter last year. Sky launched nine more HD channels in the year to end-June.

Sky’s annualised average revenue per subscriber in the quarter was £508 (€620/$787), up from £464. Revenues for the year to end-June were up 11 per cent on the previous year, at £5.912 billion. Ebitda was also up 11 per cent, at £1.192 billion.

Programming costs increased by nine per cent to £1.902 billion. Sport accounted for two thirds of the increase. The purchase of rights for the Uefa Champions League, US PGA Tour golf, the English Football League, and UK rugby league’s Super League contributed to the rise in sports costs.