Broadband sales boost profits at BT
A WAVE of new broadband customers helped push BT to a 17 per cent jump in first-half profits yesterday, as boss Ian Livingston continued his turnaround of the firm.
Its retail division added 166,000 new broadband users in the last three months, almost two thirds of the 263,000 net adds in the UK. BT’s superfast Infinity package gained 88,000 users.
Its Vision TV offering was the fastest growing in the industry, adding 41,000 new subscribers to take it past the 600,000-mark. It is the first time BT Vision has grown its customer base faster than rival Sky, which added 26,000. Virgin Media lost a net 6,000.
Overall revenues at BT fell three per cent in the half to £9.66bn, beating market expectations. Adjusted pre-tax profits grew 17 per cent to hit £1.1bn. Its Global Services division also continued its revival in the second quarter, increasing revenues by one per cent to £2bn and ebitda by 15 per cent to £159m.