SATELLITE broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting has met its year-end target of five million digital subscribers ahead of schedule.

As of Tuesday, a total of 5.3 million people had signed up for BSkyB's direct to home (DTH) package, rather than through cable.

Revenues in the six months to December 31, from such sales moved ahead 33 per cent to £715m, while the number of DTH subscribers rose by a record 538,000, it added.

Yet, despite the growth, the company turned in pre-tax losses of £260.2m, compared with last year's £61.5m loss.

The increased figure was partly due to BSkyB's wider exposure to losses from its British Interactive Broadcasting arm, which operates the Open digital service.

There was also a £70m one-off loss relating to the disposal of its stake in German pay TV channel KirchPayTV and a £25m write-off on its investment in new media.

Before one-off costs and goodwill, pre-tax losses were £112.1m.

The total of subscribers in the UK and Republic of Ireland to Sky's channels increased by 512,000 to 9.8 million in the three months to December 31.

And Sky's audience share continued to rise, compared with that of other terrestrial channels.

Sky channels' share of viewing in all UK homes increased to 5.7 per cent, compared with 4.5 per cent last time.

Total revenues rose by £236m to £1.1bn, with subscriber revenues up by £177m to £861m.

Sports costs increased by £13m to £193m because of greater outlay on Premier League coverage.