Wellington, Feb 19 NZPA - Sky Television's half year profit has risen 19.1 percent to $50.7 million, as numbers of MySky subscribers more than doubled over the last year.

The company announced its results for the half year to the end of December today, which showed operating revenue was up 6.6 percent to $369m.

The improved financial results can be attributed to the success of the MySky HDi decoder that was launched in August 2008, said chief executive John Fellet.

At the end of 2009 Sky had 144,148 MySky HDi subscribers, compared to 70,384 in December 2008, an increase of 104.8 percent. MySky HDi subscribers now represent 18.8 percent of SKY's satellite subscriber base.

The company will pay a dividend of 7 cents per share.

Shares in Sky TV were worth 471 at the close of trading yesterday.