Growth in the Sky HD service contributed to the broadcaster's strong performance. There were 482,000 net additions to the Sky+HD service in the three months to the end of December, more than double the number for the same period in 2008. Sky+HD is now in 2.08 million households.
Sky's operating profit was £401m between July and December 2009, up 4% year on year.
Adjusted earnings before joint ventures, interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were £567m in the final six months of 2009, up 8% year on year.
Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of BSkyB, said the "standout performance" came in high-definition TV. From today (28 January), Sky will sell HD-enabled boxes as standard and customers will receive the Sky+HD free when they subscribe to the HD pack of channels.
Darroch said in "recognition of the overall performance of the business", the interim dividend to shareholders increased 5% to 7.875 pence per share, which is equivalent to a doubling of the dividend over five years.
BSkyB said 18% of its customers now get TV, broadband and telephony services from the broadcaster, although quarterly net additions of the services were down 38% and 6.5% respectively.
Media agencies welcomed BSkyB's figures. Neil Johnston, joint head of buying at OMD UK, said the BSkyB results were "absolutely brilliant".
Johnston said: "Everything is positive: the number of homes has increased and the ad revenue is outperforming the market. People have decided to concentrate on things they value and are still buying widescreen HD TVs and taking advantage of them with Sky HD.
"Also, the better the service consumers are signing up to, the lower the churn rate. Once you've got used to having a higher quality service you don't go back. These figures are good news for advertisers: more people having Sky means more people are watching commercial TV."
with a live broadcast of the Arsenal vs Manchester United game this Saturday (30 January) and the commercial launch of the 3D channel is set for the spring.
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