Digital TV News

Verve continues for BT Vision

Monday 6 February, 2012

By Kelvin Goodson

BT’s digital TV service now has almost 680,000 subscribers after gaining 40,000 in the last quarter of 2011.

BT Vision maintained its strong growth in the final three months of last year after being the UK’s fastest-growing pay TV service between July and September.

According to BT’s latest financial results, the telecom giant gained 39,000 new BT Vision customers in the last quarter of 2011, having gained 41,000 in the previous three months, taking the total number to 679,000.

The results also revealed that BT remains the UK’s biggest broadband provider with over six million customers, having continually gained new customers over the last year or so.

BT Vision customers need broadband to access it as it is a hybrid digital and internet TV service. Subscribers receive free-to-air terrestrial channels via set-top box and aerial as normal, but catch-up and on-demand TV is delivered via the internet.

On Wednesday, BT announced a licensing deal with Miramax which will give BT Vision customers on-demand access to the independent film studio’s back catalogue, which includes the likes of Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting.

Earlier in the week, Sky, the UK’s largest pay TV provider, published its own financial results, revealing that it had gained 40,000 new customers in the final three months of last year, giving it a total of 10.25 million subscribers.