BSkyB dish sales show slowdown

SALES of satellite dishes and cable TV connections have slowed dramatically ahead of British Sky Broadcasting's introduction of charges for all its channels, from next month, writes Jason Nisse.

Estimates from GfK, the research group, and the British Audience Research Bureau indicate that sales of satellite dishes have slowed to fewer than 30,000 a month, compared with an average of nearly 50,000 a month last year. Cable TV is also suffering, with just 6,000 new homes in the UK subscribing last month.

GfK's research indicates that the percentage of BSkyB viewers paying for the subscription channels - Sky Sport and the two movie channels - has stopped growing and may even be shrinking.

BARB's figures indicate that at the beginning of this month 2,501,000 homes in the UK had bought satellite dishes, an increase of just 24,000 on the month before and a growth of just over 200,000 this year. The number of cable subscribers was 680,000, up 6,000 on the previous month and only 55,000 up since January. This is less than two-thirds of last year's growth.