Slowdown in new BSkyB subscribers causes share price to tumble by 14%

SATELLITE broadcaster BSkyB suffered a slowdown in adding new Irish customers to its digital service in the first six months of the year, according to figures released yesterday.

The company, which announced pre-tax profits of stg£480 million (€720 million) for the year to June, signed up 8,000 new digital customers here since January, bringing its Irish total to 323,000.

But this compared with 14,000 additions in the same period in 2003. The company’s cable subscribers fell to 574,000, 5% lower than a year ago.