BSkyB In New Customer Growth Despite Recession

BSkyB has added 80,000 new TV customers in the three months to the end of March, despite the recession.

The success of Sky+HD together with Sky’s breadth of content and value pricing were intrumental in the company acquiring new customers.

The figures also easily beat analysts forecasts of 50,000 to 60,000 new customers in the first quarter of the year.

Sky is now connected in 9.3 million UK homes, with 15% of households taking Sky TV, Sky Broadband and Sky Talk.

Despite the great news for the company, evidence shows that its growth of broadband customers slowed. Around 229,000 customers took Sky Broadband in Q1 2008, compared to only around 130,000 in Q1 2009 – leaving Sky with just over 2 million broadband customers.

There has been speculation that BSkyB were going to acquire its rival Tiscali. However, talks broke down earlier in the year and Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s Chief Executive, commented in a conference call, “We don’t sit here feeling a need to make any acquisitions. If opportunities come up that we feel would accelerate our pathway, we would consider them.”

In a statement he also said: “We have made a strong start to calendar 2009. In difficult times customers are making careful choices and responding to the combination of quality and value that we offer. Looking ahead… we expect conditions to remain challenging.”