BSkyB signed up its millionth home to high-definition television in the first quarter of this year as consumers spent more on home entertainment despite the economic downturn.

Even though a high-definition subscription from the satellite broadcaster, 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, the parent company of The Times, costs an additional £9.75 a month, 243,000 people signed up.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, said that he believed that consumers were “going out a bit less” while maintaining their pay-television packages. “Where people do have a subscription, they only give up Sky reluctantly,” he added.

The fresh sign-ups lifted the total of Sky’s high-definition subscribers to 1.02 million – just over a tenth of its total subscriber base, which grew by 80,000 to 9.32 million – and helped to push up average annual revenue per household by 7 per cent to £452.

However, the extra marketing cost of signing up a new high-definition customer prompted some analysts to conclude that profits would take a short-term hit. Lorna Tilbian, of Numis, said in a circular that “the flip side” of the faster than expected high-definition sales would be a £30 million to £50 million reduction in underlying earnings for the company’s full year.

Sky reckons that 25 to 30 per cent of customers – up to three million in total – will switch to a high-definition service “in the next few years”. However, it appears that at current rates the target could be hit comfortably before the 2012 London Olympics, to be broadcast in high defintion by the BBC.

Sky felt the economic downturn’s effect on advertising revenues, which declined 15 per cent, but Mr Darroch said that there had been no discernible impact on consumer demand in any category as unemployment rises.

Pretax profits in the quarter to March 31 – the company’s third quarter – were £63 million, compared with £56 million a year ago. Revenues were £1.39 billion, up 12 per cent. The shares rose 21¾p to close at 486¾p last night.

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