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Total Sky DHT (direct to home) subscribers in the UK and Ireland now stand at around 5.9 million, which includes 232,000 in the Republic of Ireland. And the continued growth of Sky's customer base beat analysts' expectations, which were calling for between 145,000 and 166,000 new customer additions.
A spokesperson for the company told ElectricNews.Net that customer growth in Ireland was on target and the company was generally pleased with its Irish operations. He pointed out that customer growth in Ireland was on par with figures in the UK and also said that BSkyB felt as though there was room for new customer acquisitions in the Republic over the rest of 2002.
Moreover, with revenues coming in at STG2.03 billion for the first nine months of the year, the company's sales came in at the top end of market expectations. Operating profits were also in line with expectations, up 33 percent to STG129 million.
Other important figures showed that interactive revenues for the nine months of its fiscal year climbed to STG136.3 million from STG60.2 million in the first nine months of the last fiscal year. Television betting, a service currently not available in Ireland, as well as Internet and phone services, accounted for STG70 million of total interactive revenues.
However, Mark Deering, director of Sky in Ireland, told ElectricNews.Net that the company plans to launch such interactive services here before the end of the year, including e-mail, betting and games. Third-party services such as TV banking are set to become available sometime in 2003.
Other financial figures from Sky showed that net debt decreased by STG140 million to STG1.69 billion and BSkyB said it is now generating positive free cash flow. The firm also said that it was now earning an average of STG341 from every subscriber per year, up 11 percent on last year.
During the quarter, another 14 television channels, including motor racing's F1 digital+, and six radio stations joined the digital satellite platform. On 23 April 2002, the four Irish terrestrial television channels -- RTE1, Network 2, TV3 and TG4 -- became available to subscribers in the Republic of Ireland.
Yet despite the positive figures, Sky said that its wholesale revenues, programming sold to other networks, were disappointing, up by only STG2 million for the nine months to STG221 million. Moreover, Sky said it was suffering from a downturn in the advertising market with ad revenues down 11 percent to STG178.2 million from STG200.1 million in the same period a year earlier.
The company also said that although operating profits were up, on a net basis losses for the nine-month period came to STG1.38 billion, compared to STG373 million a year ago. This figure, according to Sky, included a STG971.4 million goodwill charge relating to its investment in KirchPayTV, which filed for insolvency this week. Also included in goodwill is STG89 million in amortisation and STG22.3 million for an exceptional operating provision made against ITV Digital programming debts, another broadcaster that has shut down.
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