While the legal travails of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation are well known, his 39 per cent owned cash cow, British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), is growing its customer base and operating profits.
In the half year to the end of December BSkyB saw profit before tax rise to £597m versus £467m in the corresponding period of 2010.
The company managed to add a further 100,000 households to its customer base, although this figure includes one of the few weak comparisons in today's update, namely the number of households taking the core pay-TV service.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
New TV customers were down on 2010 at 40,000, although home communication contracts, which includes phone and broadband subscribers, hit 60,000, up on the previous year.
Total customer numbers are now at 10.471m or roughly 16% of the British population.
These customers pushed total revenues up 6% over the equivalent period of 2010 to £3.364bn while the crucial average revenue per user metric (ARPU) grew from £536 to £544.
Nomura Securities had predicted revenue of £3.374bn, and expected ARPU to be more or less unchanged at £535, thanks to the company's price freeze.
EBITDA, a measure which strips out interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation costs from earnings improved by 14% to £772m while pure operating profit jumped 16% to £601m - the best ever achieved by BSkyB.
Earnings per share (EPS) rose 20% to 24p while the company has also decided to boost half year dividend by 5% to 9.2p. Nomura had predicted EPS of 24.1p and an interim dividend of 10p.
The impressive numbers have given BSkyB the confidence to create 1,300 new jobs "across the UK and Ireland". The exact division between the two countries is not made clear although the company says it will open a new service centre in Dublin.
BSkyB has seen programme costs rise 5% to £1.109bn and network costs rise 25% to £336m. "Other" costs (including staffing) have dropped 2% to £1.318bn.
Net debt has been reduced to £615m and a new credit facility worth £743m has been negotiated but has not been tapped.
BSkyB's Chief Executive was not holding back in blowing his company's trumpet, saying: "Financially, we've delivered another strong result, with our highest ever first-half operating profit and 20% growth in earnings per share. On the back of this, we're increasing the dividend again and have started our share buyback programme to increase returns for our shareholders."
Investors appeared impressed; shares were up 3.08% at 686p by 8.22am.
Over the last year BSkyB's stock has dropped 9%.
BS
