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29 July 2011
Last updated at 04:49 ET
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Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is returning £1bn to shareholders angered by the recent fall in share prices.
Its shares have fallen sharply in the past month after News Corporation abandoned its bid for BSkyB amid the phone-hacking scandal.
The company said it had gained 426,000 customers over the past years.
Operating profits, excluding earnings from non-core activities such as investments, rose 23% to £1.07bn, while pre-tax profits fell 15% to £1.01bn.
On Thursday, BSkyB's board confirmed that James Murdoch would stay on as company chairman, despite the phone-hacking scandal at News International, a News Corporation subsidiary where Mr Murdoch is also chairman.
"There was a long discussion as you would expect at the board yesterday around governance, and that included the role of chairman, and the outcome was that the board was unanimous in its support for James as chairman," BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch told BBC News.
BSkyB is raising its dividend 20% to 23.28 pence per share and has announced a £750m share buyback.
This should help to placate shareholders, as the value of their shares has fallen 15% since in the past month.
Triple-play BSkyB increased its customer base by 426,000 in the year to give it a total of 10,294,000 subscribers.
Average revenue per customer grew £31 to £539.
One of the key targets for media companies at the moment is persuading customers to subscribe to more of their products, combining fees for television access with services like broadband internet access and landline telephone services.
"Critically, they've put on a 37% increase in triple-play, that's people who take pay-TV, telephone and broadband," said Steve Hewlett from BBC Radio 4's Media Show.
"That's the holy grail - that's what everyone is after, and they've now got 27% of their customers, 2.8 million people, taking all three services."
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Its shares have fallen sharply in the past month after News Corporation abandoned its bid for BSkyB amid the phone-hacking scandal.
The company said it had gained 426,000 customers over the past years.
Operating profits, excluding earnings from non-core activities such as investments, rose 23% to £1.07bn, while pre-tax profits fell 15% to £1.01bn.
On Thursday, BSkyB's board confirmed that James Murdoch would stay on as company chairman, despite the phone-hacking scandal at News International, a News Corporation subsidiary where Mr Murdoch is also chairman.
"There was a long discussion as you would expect at the board yesterday around governance, and that included the role of chairman, and the outcome was that the board was unanimous in its support for James as chairman," BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch told BBC News.
BSkyB is raising its dividend 20% to 23.28 pence per share and has announced a £750m share buyback.
This should help to placate shareholders, as the value of their shares has fallen 15% since in the past month.
Triple-play BSkyB increased its customer base by 426,000 in the year to give it a total of 10,294,000 subscribers.
Average revenue per customer grew £31 to £539.
One of the key targets for media companies at the moment is persuading customers to subscribe to more of their products, combining fees for television access with services like broadband internet access and landline telephone services.
"Critically, they've put on a 37% increase in triple-play, that's people who take pay-TV, telephone and broadband," said Steve Hewlett from BBC Radio 4's Media Show.
"That's the holy grail - that's what everyone is after, and they've now got 27% of their customers, 2.8 million people, taking all three services."
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