Sky hits 10m customers

BSkyB has announced it has hit its 10 million customer target.

The 10 million includes 3.15 million Sky+HD customers, 2.8 million broadband and 2.5 million Sky Talk phone customers.

The satellite broadcaster set the target in August 2004. Results for the latest quarter showed it had fallen short by around 440,000.

Sky says the new figures show that 36% of the population subscribe to its services, equivalent to 25 million people.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, says: “It’s the result of a constant appetite for change and years of hard work behind the scenes to give our customers a great entertainment experience. But perhaps an even bigger achievement is the transformation of our business, which means we now have more ways to grow than ever.”

The broadcaster has spent heavily on marketing as it chased the 10 million customer target. Its latest quarterly results showed a 23.8% rise in marketing spend, up £58m to £302m since September last year.

BSkyB indicated in its recent quarterly results that it would be looking to cross-sell products to existing customers to achieve further growth.

The news comes as Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp has made its intentions known to the European Commission that it will bid to acquire the 61% of BSkyB it does not currently own.

Business secretary Vince Cable has referred the deal to Ofcom for review over concerns related to media plurality.

The UK media regulator’s report is expected by the end of the year.