Sky soars to new high as Britain snaps up HD TV

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City analysts hailed the "blowout" figures which showed a better-than-expected 482,000 signed up to Sky+ HD, treble last year's rate.

Almost 2.1 million subscribers have HD, bringing Sky an extra £120 a head in revenue per year.

Sky increased its net subscriber base by 172,000 to 9.7 million, which meant many of those choosing HD were customers who wanted to upgrade. The average customer is spending £492 a year, up 11 per cent, which beat expectations.

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said the second-quarter results showed that in "tighter times" consumers would still "pay for better home entertainment".

Customers are taking 36 per cent more Sky products, which include broadband and telephony, than a year ago.

"The encouraging thing is more people are giving us more of their business," said Mr Darroch, who is slashing the £49 cost of buying a Sky+ HD box to zero from today to drive further take-up.

"Demand for that HD content is only likely to grow. Virtually every new TV set sold is HD-ready. By around the end of the year, 14 million homes will be using an HD set."

Sky's first 3D channel for HD sets launches this year while Mr Darroch is also offering a new, more powerful one-terabyte Sky+ HD box for £249 to allow viewers to store up to 240 hours of HD content.

Mr Darroch admitted that growth in broadband and telephony was "slower in absolute terms". Eighteen per cent of customers have signed up for the more-expensive "triple play" of TV, broadband and telephone.

Total revenues at Sky, 39 per cent owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, jumped 10 per cent in the six months to 31 December to £2.9 billion. Operating profits rose four per cent to £401 million, partly because of a £70 million investment in promoting HD.

Giving away Sky+ HD boxes should not affect profits as the cost is recouped by higher revenues. Sky raised the dividend 5per cent to 7.875p a share.

Lorna Tilbian, analyst at Numis, described the results as "outstanding". Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded its medium-term profit forecasts for Sky by five per cent to six per cent.

Mark Sugarman of Citigroup said new HD subscriber numbers were "blowout". Sky's shares initially jumped three per cent before settling at 560.5p, up 1.2 per cent.