BSKYB near to 10 million customers

SATELLITE broadcaster BSkyB moved closer to its target of 10 million customers today as it added 96,000 subscribers in the first three months of its financial year.

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd Oct 2010, 10:40 BST

The group's customer base stood at 9.956 million households at the end of September - and it wants to hit the 10 million target, set in 2004, by the end of the year.

The broadcaster also saw a 39 per cent leap in the number of customers who take TV, broadband and telephone services from the group - a total of 2.3 million customers.

BSkyB, which recently rebuffed a proposal by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to take full control of the UK satellite broadcaster, said it would be opening a new call centre, creating 500 jobs, to support the growth.

The climb in customer numbers came as BSkyB posted a 25 per cent rise in operating profits in the quarter to 255m and a 15 per cent increase in revenues to 1.5bn.

Rupert Murdoch