Customer demand helps BSkyB beat H1 profit forecasts

LONDON Jan 31 (Reuters) - Demand for additional products such as broadband and telephony helped pay-TV group BSkyB to report first half operating profit up a better-than-expected 8 percent on Thursday.

Britain's dominant pay-TV group, which provides fixed-line telephony, TV and broadband, also added 88,000 net new customers to the service in the three months to the end of December, compared with a forecast of 58,000.

The strong performance in customer growth helped the group to post first half operating profit up 8 percent to 647 million pounds ($1 billion) against a forecast of 632 million pounds.