Satellite broadcaster BSkyB today said its broadband service passed the one million customer milestone last month.
The achievement came as the company reported further growth in the first quarter of its financial year, following the net addition of 83,000 customers to its pay-TV service in the three months to September 30th.
The figure, which was slightly better than market expectations, took Sky's total customer base to 8.66 million. Operating profits were £143 million, down from £180 million a year earlier after investment of £51 million in Sky Broadband, which the company launched 14 months ago.
The company said its Irish customer base rose to 513,000 by the end of September, up from 497,000 at the end of June.
The company said it was the UK's fastest growing broadband provider, with an increase of 31 per cent to 939,000 over the first quarter.
Sky also said it had achieved a further improvement in the number of customers leaving the service, with the churn rate of 11.3 per cent being its best performance for five quarters. That was despite price changes during the period.
The overall number of new Sky customers was 327,000 in the quarter, which the company said was the highest figure for four years. Total product sales, including record demand for its Sky Plus personal video recorder, exceeded one million for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Average revenues per user declined in line with expectations, by £1 to £411 after the one-off loss of Prem Plus revenues, following the withdrawal of the pay-per-view football service at the end of last season.
BSkyB also said advertising revenues remained flat at £78 million, with growth in the overall television advertising sector offsetting the impact from the non-renewal of the contract to supply Sky's basic channels to Virgin Media customers.
Chief executive James Murdoch said: "We've seen continued good demand from customers for our entire product range, with over one million product sales for the fourth consecutive quarter."
While BSkyB's overall trading performance has remained robust, the company is under pressure on other fronts.
In particular, BSkyB faces the prospect of having to sell down its 17.9 per cent stake in ITV, which it acquired for £940 million last November, after the Competition Commission said it believed the holding operated against the public interest.