SimplySwitch: Sky announces full year results

British Sky Broadcasting today gave its full-year trading update. BSkyB's operating profit fell 7% to £815 million because of heavy investment in new services such as broadband and home phone.

However, Sky’s marketing drive has been a huge success.

The company now has 716,000 broadband subscribers and 526,000 ‘Sky Talk’ customers.

Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch.com, the price comparison and switching service, comments: “Sky’s home phone and broadband products have continued to grow in popularity. This is great news for competition and should prompt rival suppliers to respond in terms of lower prices and better customer services. In order to attract new subscriptions, Sky spent around £70m in advertising in the first six months of the year alone - a clear indication of how fierce competition has become within the telecoms sector.

“While Sky’s bundle packages have proven popular with customers, anyone thinking of signing up should bear in mind that, though competitively priced, Sky’s home phone and broadband offers are only available to Sky TV subscribers.

“Customers happy to live without Sky TV should look elsewhere as they’d need to pay at least £15 a month for the most basic TV package in order to take advantage of the offers. With Sky, line rental is still paid to BT, so this cost must also be taken into account when comparing deals. Another barrier for many households is that Sky’s broadband service is still unavailable to 30% of the UK.

“Those looking for a new home phone or broadband package should take into account a range of factors when making their decision. Rather than basing their choice purely on price, people should always check the small print for things like contract length, exit penalties, download limits or ‘fair usage policies’. We would always advise customers to check out all the options and select the service that best suits their needs. Bundled packages can offer excellent value, but only if a customer genuinely wants to use all of the products.”