Pay TV group BSkyB revealed today that it had hit its target of seven million direct-to-home satellite subscribers three months early.
The group had expected to pass the milestone by the end of the current calendar year but announced today that there were already 7,015,000 digital satellite subscribers on its books by yesterday.
The announcement comes exactly seven years after the company launched its digital service. Since that time it has migrated the whole of its analogue subscriber base to digital.
Sky is now targeting eight million direct-to-home customers by the end of 2005, by which date it hopes to have driven up its average revenue per user (ARPU) - a key industry measure - to £400.
According to BSkyB's annual results published in August, its annualised ARPU figure stood at £366 at the end of its last financial year on June 30th.
Speculation about the battle to success outgoing chief executive Mr Tony Ball has been rife in the preceding weeks, with reports linking BSkyB chairman Mr Rupert Murdoch's 31-year-old son James to the top job. He is currently in charge of Star TV in Asia.
But BSkyB said its nomination committee, headed by senior independent non-executive director Lord St John of Fawsley, would make recommendations to the BSkyB board on a successor to Mr Ball.
PA