Strong growth in on-demand and home communication products helped BSkyB beat City forecasts despite growing competition for pay-television viewers, the company said.
Reporting results for the six months to the end of December, BSkyB said that adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were flat at £813m, compared to the same period a year earlier.
Adjusted revenues, which stripped out sales from the discontinued retailing of ESPN sports channels, rose by 7.6% to £3.751bn.
The announcement included news that total net product growth across the company's TV, telephony, broadband and other services grew by 873,000 during the second quarter - more than 100,000 more than analysts had predicted.
Underlining its diversification beyond its founding pay-TV subscription product, it said that on-demand usage had trebled during the second quarter and that 1 million Sky+HD boxes had been connected for the delivery of services.
Its share price rose by 3.97% on Thursday to 878p.
BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch said the interim dividend was up 9% BSkyB, the owner of Sky News, now has more than 5.1 million broadband customers and more than 33.3 million paid-for products in total, with mobile and on-demand services such as Sky Go and NOW TV also seeing strong growth.
Unveiling a new content deal lasting until 2020 with US media group HBO, BSkyB announced extensions to long-running broadcast rights agreements covering cricket, football and rugby union.
Sky Sports channels had recorded their biggest audiences for six years during the period, the company said, aided by a compelling Premier League season and England's back-to-back Ashes series against Australia.
Reflecting on the company's performance, BSkyB chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "We had a very good first six months of the year as we reaped the benefits of our broader-based approach to growth.
"In a consumer environment that remains challenging, customers continued to choose to take Sky products in ever greater numbers in the run-up to Christmas, with Q2 growth up by over 40% on last year.
Mr Darroch added: "We are moving through a year of investment in which we are absorbing the one-off step up in Premier League costs well, with adjusted EBITDA flat thanks to a continued focus on operating efficiency.
"The 9% increase in the interim dividend to 12p, the tenth consecutive year of growth, reflects our confidence in the strength of our business and the progress we are making."
BSkyB said operating profit during the half-year fell 8% to £595m, slightly better than City analysts had predicted.
That decline was largely the consequence of the hike in the cost of live Premier League broadcasting rights and investment in new connected-TV services.
BT has waded into the top-flight football broadcasting market in recent months, and analysts believe that price inflation is likely to continue to accelerate in future rights auctions.
:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.
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