BT TV subscribers pass 1 million in 1Q 2014

BT Group plc (BT.L) today announced its results for the fourth quarter and year to 31 March 2014.

BT Consumer

Revenue increased 9% in the quarter, a strong performance, driven by 24% growth in broadband and TV revenue reflecting the impact of BT Sport. We added 46,000 TV customers bringing the total to 1 million.

In the quarter we launched a smaller, sleeker and more power efficient version of the YouView set-top box. We also added five new high definition channels to our line-up, bringing the total on our YouView service to 27. We will be closing our first generation TV service in the first quarter of 2014/15. We will exchange legacy set-top boxes for new YouView boxes and anticipate some impact on TV customer churn during this period.

We now have around 3m direct BT Sport customers, which include those watching via satellite, BT TV, online or via the app. Including our wholesale deals, BT Sport is now in around 5m homes. During the quarter we further strengthened our BT Sport proposition: we extended our exclusive live German Bundesliga football rights for the UK and Republic of Ireland until 2017 and started to broadcast Moto GP and coverage of the World Rally Championship.

                                 2011/12             2012/13               2013/14
                      ------------------  ------------------  --------------------
                       Q1   Q2   Q3   Q4   Q1   Q2   Q3   Q4   Q1   Q2   Q3     Q4
                      ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  ---  -----
TV customers* ('000)  598  639  679  707  728  749  770  810  833  903  956  1,002
QoQ movement ('000)    23   41   39   28   21   21   21   40   23   70   53     46