Sky bolsters HD subscriptions by 50%

HD football
300,000 viewers tuned into watch the Carling Cup final between Manchester United and Tottenham in HD

It's been very difficult not to notice Sky pushing its HD boxes these past few months, with many an advertising campaign extolling the virtues of hi-def content from the satellite operator.

Well, it seems to have worked as Sky has announced today that it has doubled its HD subscription base and improved the amount of people signed on to Sky+ as well.

HD taking off

The figures suggest that now one in 10 Sky homes enjoy HD, which equates to 1.022 million customers. Just last year the figure stood at 465,000.

Sky is putting this down to the low-cost of its HD boxes (slashed to £49 in a bid to bring in the punters) and its plentiful hi-def content, as Stephen van Rooyen, Sky's Director of Product Management explains:

"The growth of HD is really starting to take off as more people discover the difference in picture and sound quality.

"Whether you're a fan of Hollywood movies, Test cricket, dramatic documentaries or operatic arias, you can enjoy more of the things you love in stunning high definition with Sky."

More time-shifting

Interestingly, the latest figures also show more and more people are watching time-shifted content on both Sky+ and Sky Anytime.

Apparently, Sky time shifted viewing from the Sky+ planner accounted for 17% of all TV viewing for all individuals in the 5 million homes with Sky+.

It seems the time of getting your daily 7.30pm fix of EastEnders could soon be over.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.