BT (NYSE: BT) has hit the 750,000 subscriber milestone for its BT Vision IPTV service, thanks to the 21,000 new customers who signed up in the third quarter of this year. It's also accelerating its fiber rollout, the company said.
BT reported second quarter revenue of 4.4 billion pounds ($7.23 billion), which was down 9 percent year-over-year. It did report, though, that pre-tax profits were up 7 percent during the same period and finished at 608 million pounds ($1.1 billion), "despite the economic conditions and regulatory impacts," Chief Executive Ian Livingston said in a news release.
Livingston promised in the same release that the telco will "continue to make significant investments in the future of our business and [is] again accelerating our fiber rollout." If all goes according to plan, two thirds of U.K. premises should have access to fiber by spring 2013, "more than 18 months ahead of our original schedule," he said.
During the quarter, the telco reportedly passed 12 million premises with fiber and gained 190,000 connections. Over 950,000 premises are now connected with fiber, the company said.
BT attributed some of the BT Vision growth to the addition of Premier League football broadcast rights, which were announced in June, giving the service exclusive live rights to English Premiership Rugby for a four year period. The telco said it also reached agreements to broadcast games from "the top football leagues of Italy, France, Brazil and the USA."
For more:
- BT issued this news release about its second quarter earnings
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