The rise of BT Sport helped parent company BT mark a record second quarter, boosting its share of broadband additions inside the period to 93 per cent.
BT says BT Sport has signed up 2 million subscribers and is now available to 4 million homes, as a result of its wholesale contract with Virgin Media.
The company says that it’s also “delivering for the business”.
BT marked its lowest line rental churn rate in additional than five years and a 2 per cent year on year revenue growth in its consumer business to £1.84bn within the three months to 30 September. Quarter on quarter, consumer revenue rose 4 per cent – its best quarterly performance for 10 years.
In terms of purchaser numbers, BT’s TV service added 70,000 subscribers within the quarter, while 156,000 new customers signed up for broadband – making BT the dominant player in acquiring new subscribers inside the period. It has around 7 million broadband customers in total.
BT’s investment in acquiring the rights to teach live Premier League football matches and other high profile sports, tapping up celebrity presenters which includes Clare Balding and the large marketing push linked to launching the channel did mean the corporate reported a 13 per cent year on year drop in profit to £948m.
Gavin Patterson, BT’s recently appointed group chief executive officer, says BT Sport has made a “confident start”.
In the 3 months to 30 September rival Sky splashed out one more £55m in marketing its broadband and pay TV services because it looked to mitigate the impact of BT Sport. The move gave the impression to show early signs of paying off because the company added 111,000 new broadband customers and 37,000 new TV subscribers in its first quarter.