BSkyB profit is biggest in 2 years, add 95,000 users

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British Sky Broadcasting, the British pay-television business controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., on Wednesday posted its biggest quarterly profit in almost two years as the company added more subscribers than analysts predicted.

Net income for the third quarter, ended March 31, rose 5.3 percent to £119 million, or $226 million. It was BSkyB's largest quarterly profit since it earned £156 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2003. Revenue rose 9 percent to £1.015 billion.

The satellite broadcaster added 95,000 subscribers in its latest quarter, compared with the median estimate of 73,600 by seven analysts surveyed. Total subscribers topped 7.7 million. BSkyB, based in the London suburb of Isleworth, said it expected to meet its target of eight million subscribers by the end of 2005.

BSkyB's growth has slowed in recent years amid competition from Freeview, a three-year-old digital terrestrial service that carries no monthly subscription fee. The service, backed by the BBC, is now in five million British homes.

Source: Bloomberg

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