The digital terrestrial service went into administration on March 27 and Sky continued to provide its channels free of charge until the end of April. It is thought the satellite broadcaster will lose £70m next year from lost programme revenues following ITV Digital's collapse, although it is hoped it will pick up some subscribers from its former rival.
Sky would need to convert 150,000 ITV Digital subscribers to make up for the loss of revenue. ITV Digital had 1.2m subscribers in all.
The company added 171,000 subscribers to Sky Digital, bringing its total subscriber numbers to 5.9m. The company aims to have 7m subscribers by the end of 2003.
It said average revenue per subscriber (Arpu) for the third quarter was also up, rising 11% to £341, while churn was steady at 10.5%. However, the satellite firm saw its shares fall this morning as investors reacted to what were described as disappointing Arpu figures. BSkyB shares were down 7p at 736p.
Turnover for the three months to March 31 rose to £707.6m, up from £585.1m a year earlier, although advertising revenue was down 11% year-on-year to £178m.
Core profits at the firm showed a healthy performance as operating profits before goodwill rose 33% to £129m in the nine months to March, ahead of market forecasts.
The company said its stake in Kirch Pay-TV accounted for £70m of pre-tax losses, which were £1.27bn for the nine-month period after the company wrote off £1bn against its stake in Kirch Pay-TV in the last quarter. Sky said its financial involvement with Kirch stopped on February 8.
Tony Ball, chief executive of BSkyB, said: "Sky is reporting another strong set of results today, demonstrating that Sky Digital continues to make progress on all fronts. Operating profit increased by 33% to £129m and positive free cash flow in the quarter resulted in a reduction in net debt of £140m."
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