UK telecommunications company BT has cited the performance of its BT Sport pay-television platform as one of the main reasons behind a year-on-year increase in pre-tax profit during the three months to March 31, 2014.
BT Sport launched ahead of the 2013-14 football season, with a live rights package for English Premier League football matches standing as its flagship property.
BT reported adjusted profit before tax of £747m (€907.9m/$1.3bn) in the fiscal fourth quarter, which is an increase of 17 per cent on the £639m achieved in the corresponding period last year.
Year-on-year net revenue fell one per cent to £4.7bn in the quarter but consumer revenue increased nine per cent to £1.1bn.
Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT, said BT Sport was the main reason behind this record growth in consumer revenue.
Patterson said: “BT Sport has proved very popular and we are delighted the service is now in around five million homes. For BT Consumer it underpinned a record nine per cent growth in revenue in the fourth quarter and the lowest line losses in over five years.”
BT’s fourth quarter performance places its full-year pre-tax profit at £2.3bn, which is slightly down on the previous year. Full-year revenue also dropped to £18.3bn.
BT Sport added another major property to its rights portfolio in November as BT agreed to pay about £299m per season for the exclusive live rights to the Uefa Champions League and Europa League club football competitions in the UK for three years, from 2015-16 to 2017-18.