More than a million U.K. households now get HDTV through BSkyB an...
More than a million U.K. households now get HDTV through BSkyB and account for more than 10 percent of its 9.3 million subscribers, it said. Its Sky+HD service more than doubled the number of subscribers as of the Q3…
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ended March 31, to 1,022,000 compared with 465,000 in the year-ago period. Sky+HD homes grew by 243,000 in the first three months of 2009. The growth coincided with introduction of a new HD set- top priced at 49 pounds ($75), BSkyB said, conceding that the box costs it about $150 when the expense of manufacturing, installation and added customer-service personnel are tallied. Growth of the HD service also reflects falling prices for HDTVs and HD-ready displays in the U.K., BSkyB said. The set- top’s hard drive lets viewers pause and rewind live TV, record an entire TV series at the touch of a button, and record two programs at the same time. About 400 hours of HD programming is available daily on 33 channels, comprising movies, sports, and regular and specialty TV shows. BSkyB lately has been positioning its HD service for future 3-D broadcasts, with an ongoing series of experiments (CED April 7 p1). In Q3, BSkyB’s profit was 3 million pounds compared with year-earlier loss of 6 million pounds. Revenue rose 12 percent to 1.4 billion pounds in the quarter.