Sky Digital takes off..............................
news.bbc.co.uk
Friday, October 30, 1998 Published at 11:52 GMT
Business: The Company File
Digital TV takes off
In the space of a month, more than 100,000 UK homes have signed up to digital television packages provided by BSkyB, and subscriptions are rolling in so fast that the company is creating 1,700 more jobs to cope with the demand.
BSkyB wants to recruit 1,200 workers for its subscriber management centre in Scotland, and will take on an additional 500 digital installation staff.
Viewers are happy to pay for the digital receiver, dish - and subscription fee of at least £11.99 a month
Some 65,000 digital television sets have already been installed and BSkyB's Chief Executive Mark Booth said the company was "comfortably on the way to hitting our target of 200,000 digital subscribers by Christmas."
Market watchers had expected BSkyB to sell 40,000 to 70,000 digital satellite dishes.
BSkyB is already running a service for analogue satellite television, with more than 6.8m subscribers.
Digital is winning BSkyB new audiences as 30% of subscribers to Sky Digital are new customers.
Despite the success of Sky Digital, BSkyB's pre-tax profits in the first quarter of its financial year were down £10m to £52m, at the top end of analysts' forecasts.
The profit slump reflects higher programming costs and the price of launching digital services.
The figures provide a welcome relief for the company, which had its bid to buy Manchester United Football Club referred to the Monopolies and Mergers commission this week.
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