Sky HD customers near 100,000

[BGonaSTICK]

Sky HD's customer base has risen significantly since June, bringing in an extra 38,000 to reach 96,000 watching Sky's 12 HD channels.

The company, which released its quarterly figures yesterday, reported a revenue increase of 11% to £1.07 billion.

Sky bought internet provider Easynet for £234 million this year, but as predicted, the investment has brought the company's pre-tax profit down by 17% to £166 million.

BSkyB satellite giant said it was pleased with the uptake of its broadband service, which launched in July, revealing it now had 113,000 subscribers, with 74,000 already connected. 1 million have also registered their interest for the service.

Chief executive James Murdoch, said: "While it is still early, we are pleased with the progress since the launch of Sky Broadband and in just 15 weeks, we've seen a great response from Sky customers.

"Our preparations, pace of provisioning and investments in service and systems to manage demand are performing well."

Sky+, the satellite provider's PVR service, acquired 139,000 new customers over the summer, totalling 1.7 million, 20% of the total homes with Sky.

The total number of subscribers in the UK and Ireland Sky has is now 8.26 million