BSkyB Sees Half-Year Profit Up 8% to £647m

BSkyB (LSE: BSY.L - news) , the parent company of Sky News, has reported an 8% increase in operating profit for the first half of the financial year.

The company said the figure for the period was £647m.

Revenues increased 5% to £3.5bn in the same period.

BSkyB added 88,000 net new customers to the service in the three months to the end of December, compared with a forecast of 58,000.

The net new customer total was up 271,000 year-on-year to reach 10.74 million.

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "We have delivered another good performance in the first half with strong progress across the board.

"In what remains a tough consumer environment, our broadly-based growth strategy is working well.

"Good product growth in the quarter means that our total base of subscription products has grown by 10% year on year."

Weekly on-demand downloads for the firm have increased 150% in second quarter while Sky Go users have gone up 46% year on year to 3.1 million.

Mr Darroch added: "Although we expect the consumer environment in 2013 to remain challenging, we have a strong set of plans for the year ahead.

"The business is in good shape to continue to deliver for customers and shareholders."