British Sky Broadcasting said today pre-tax losses widened in the first nine months as subscribers to its digital service continued to grow.
BSkyB is 37.5 per cent owned by Mr Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is also taking a £40 million sterling charge to restructure its interactive arm in which Sky recently boosted its stake following regulatory clearance.
Sky's total direct-to-home subscribers as of March 31st climbed to 5.3 million of which 95 per cent were digital compared with 5.05 million at the end of 2000.
Sky has promoted the digital service heavily ahead of its planned switch-off of the analogue signal this summer.
It also aims to head off competition from cable companies NTL, Telewest and ONdigital - the terrestrial digital service owned by Granada and Carlton.
Sky has set a target of seven million subscribers by the end of 2003.
Pre-tax losses widened to £176.4 million in the nine months to March 31st from an £89.9 million loss in the same period the year before.
Sky will also consolidate all interactive and online activities into a new Sky Interactive division. This will allow for integration of its interactive content with TV programming and cost savings of around £20 million a year.