Broadband News
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Sky broadband growth slowing, losses narrowing and LLU complete
28 Jan 2010 | 13.51 Europe/London
Sky’s half yearly results show that although the ISP is outperforming arch rival TalkTalk on net new broadband additions, its rate of acceleration is showing signs of slowing.
Ironically, television seemed to dominate both ISPs’ results for the last half and last quarter of 2009. While TalkTalk publicly acknowledged its sponsorship of the X-Factor of nearly trebling analysts predictions of 13,000 net additions to 36,000, telecommunications journalists had to scroll a way down Sky’s figures today to find anything of note referring to broadband.
For the ISP and satellite broadcaster, the half year results were all about launching a 3D live show at the weekend and the success of high definition – subscriptions to Sky+HD more than doubled in the last half of 2009, year on year, to half a million.
As an ISP, Sky now claims to have more than 2.1m customers but, interestingly, only achieved 101,000 net additions in the final quarter of 2009, compared to 163,000 for the corresponding period the year before.
Losses narrowing and unbundling complete
Nevertheless, an interesting statistic which did come out of the figures is that 18% of Sky’s customers now take the triple play of phone, broadband and television – showing that the ISP’s self promotion to new and existing customers is partially paying off.
In fact, the statistic that will send a chill down other ISPs’ spines is that a quarter of Sky customers are on broadband.
However, the broadband deals on offer come at a cost. Its broadband business lost £72m in 2009, although it claims these losses are improving. Likewise Sky’s business IPS, Easynet, lost £14m last year.
On a more positive note, Sky was particularly upbeat today about unbundling. With 1,150 exchanges unbundled, it says it has opened up all the exchanges it had targeted and that 500,000 of its customers are now on unbundled connections.
Ironically, television seemed to dominate both ISPs’ results for the last half and last quarter of 2009. While TalkTalk publicly acknowledged its sponsorship of the X-Factor of nearly trebling analysts predictions of 13,000 net additions to 36,000, telecommunications journalists had to scroll a way down Sky’s figures today to find anything of note referring to broadband.
For the ISP and satellite broadcaster, the half year results were all about launching a 3D live show at the weekend and the success of high definition – subscriptions to Sky+HD more than doubled in the last half of 2009, year on year, to half a million.
As an ISP, Sky now claims to have more than 2.1m customers but, interestingly, only achieved 101,000 net additions in the final quarter of 2009, compared to 163,000 for the corresponding period the year before.
Losses narrowing and unbundling complete
Nevertheless, an interesting statistic which did come out of the figures is that 18% of Sky’s customers now take the triple play of phone, broadband and television – showing that the ISP’s self promotion to new and existing customers is partially paying off.
In fact, the statistic that will send a chill down other ISPs’ spines is that a quarter of Sky customers are on broadband.
However, the broadband deals on offer come at a cost. Its broadband business lost £72m in 2009, although it claims these losses are improving. Likewise Sky’s business IPS, Easynet, lost £14m last year.
On a more positive note, Sky was particularly upbeat today about unbundling. With 1,150 exchanges unbundled, it says it has opened up all the exchanges it had targeted and that 500,000 of its customers are now on unbundled connections.