The UK digital satellite broadcaster is expected to have added around 140,000 new subscribers, against 210,000 for the same quarter last year. However, the company lost around 115,000 customers when it switched off its analogue service last month.
Subscriber numbers are set to be just short of the 5.5m subscriber mark although it is widely expected to hit its 7m subscriber target by 2003.
To offset the slowing subscriber growth the company is increasing subscription charges to its premium packages by between 7% and 9%. As a result it is seeing average revenue per user (ARPU) increasing.
The company is expected to report pretax losses before goodwill and exceptional items of between £28m and £30m. This compares with losses of £31.9m last time.
Analysts, however, are forecasting full year results as wide ranging as losses of £75m to a profit of £78m.