British Sky Broadcasting PLC's profits are up eight per cent for the first half of its financial year.
An increase in customer numbers helped offset a drop in advertising revenue, the company said on Tuesday.
Britain's biggest broadcaster by revenue said its net profit in the six months ending 2011 rose to STG441 million ($A657.57 million) from STG407 million a year earlier.
Revenue at the company, which is 39 per cent-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, was up six percent to STG3.4 billion. The dividend was raised five percent to 9.2 pence per share.
The company's solid results and dividend helped BSkyB shares rally 3.2 percent to 687 pence in early trading in London.
Sky shares have been hit hard this year, partly because of the fallout from the hacking scandal involving News Corp's News of the World tabloid. One of the major impacts of the scandal was News Corp's shelving of its bid to buy the shares in BSkyB it doesn't already own.
BSkyB's results were helped by a 321,000 increase in customer numbers during the period, while subscriptions to various products, notably broadband and telephone, increased by 772,000.
Despite its further advance, there are concerns over the company's prospects, which is chaired by James Murdoch.
Steve Liechti, an analyst at Investec Securities, is cautious about BSkyB because of possible competitive and regulatory problems.
He noted that television rights for soccer, which have been a key to building BSkyB, will be up for renewal in upcoming quarters. The company also faced growing competition in subscription video on demand.
Alongside its results, BSkyB announced it was planning a cable-based broadband offering with unlimited usage, delivered via the cable network of telecoms company BT PLC.
Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said he expected a tough year ahead, given Britain's sluggish economy and the squeeze on household incomes.
'No consumer business can be immune to these conditions and we will manage any short-term headwinds as they emerge,' Darroch said. He added that BSkyB was planning more original productions and was launching a channel dedicated to Formula One.
