Sky HD content got bigger and better this year and this showed by customers taking the premium Sky+ HD box with an increase from 591,000 to a total of 779,000 in just six months.
The retail price of the high definition box will be reduced from £150 to £49 immediately.
With more people buying HD and full HD screens it is no wonder that more people have brought the Sky HD box and that Sky themselves have reduced the price. Sky now have 31 HD channels on it’s HD service.
Sky commented “We are seeing a dramatic shift in awareness of HD and more and more people are starting to regard HD quality video as standard,” the company said. “We have been positioning our business to take advantage of this long-term trend and have assembled the best HD service in the UK by far. At the heart of this is an outstanding range of content from high quality brands.”
Sky said sales of Sky+ HD and its equivalent standard definition box “accelerated sharply” over recent months, with net additions reaching a record 188,000 during the latter half of the year. The company said it would create a thousand new customer service and installer jobs to support demand at a cost of £30m per year.
“We have structured our investment so that the majority of costs are geared to demand; Sky+HD customer acquisition costs will only be incurred in proportion to take-up of the product,” the company explained. “At a headline box price of £49, we estimate an incremental cost of adding a Sky+HD customer (either new to Sky or existing customer upgrades) of £100. This cost is fully recovered within 12 months through the ongoing monthly revenue from the HD pack subscription.”
Sky warned, however: "The economic climate is tougher than it has been for many years and like all companies we face uncertainty. While no consumer business is immune to a downturn, our move to a broader customer offer, including leading broadband and fixed-line telephony services as well as the best home entertainment, has enabled us to build a healthy and relatively resilient subscription base. There remains substantial headroom for growth in our core sectors, both through adding new customers and selling more products to them. This, together with our focus on cost efficiency, is delivering improved profitability.