Wellington, Aug 20 NZPA - Sky Network Television posted a 25.5 percent increase in full year net profit to $97.7 million, as viewership, subscriber numbers and average revenue per subscriber rose.

The result for the year to the end of June compared with $77.9m the year before and was achieved on operating revenue up 6.5 percent to $658.8m.

A fully imputed final dividend of 7 cents per share is to be paid, giving a total dividend for the year of 14cps, compared to last year's total dividend of 10cps.

Sky chief executive John Fellet said viewership was up 8 percent, while Sky's subscriber base grew by 5.3 percent over the previous year, to a new high of 748,576. Sky was now in 46 percent of New Zealand homes. As of yesterday, Sky's subscriber count was 752,405.

The free-to-air channel Prime performed well with an average 5.3 percent share of the television audience, Mr Fellet said.

During the last year six new channels were launched -- Sky Sport Highlights, Sky Movies Greats, Crime and Investigation Network, Vibe, CNBC and Fashion TV -- all of which contributed to an increase in Sky's share of total television viewing.

In June, Sky finished the upgrade on its Panorama Rd television station to a server based high definition (HD) multi channel facility, and last month started broadcasting in HD.

At the same time, Sky also launched a next generation personal video recorder, for which more than 13,000 orders had been taken.

Sky's position as the home of New Zealand sport had been enhanced with the launch of the new trans-Tasman netball competition in April, and the acquisition of the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Mr Fellet said.

Sky shares closed yesterday at $5.03, having ranged between $6.02 and $4.06 in the past year.

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