Reward scheme boosts demand for BSkyB HDTV

摘要

Demand for BSkyB's high-definition television service has "surged" after a two-month promotion which offered discounted set-top boxes to long-term customers, the company said this week. The satellite-broadcaster said that demand for HDTV-enabled decoders during the third quarter of the year was 40-per-cent higher than it had expected. At the same time, customer-satisfaction levels rose on the back of a "tenure-based" loyalty reward scheme aimed at long-standing Sky Digital customers. Under the scheme, which ran from July 27 until October 1, existing subscribers received discounts when upgrading to HDTV. Customers of up to three years' standing were offered a ￡20 discount on the Sky Plus HD box, which usually costs ￡299, while subscribers of up to six years received ￡50 off. Customers of more than six years could upgrade for ￡199. Since this offer ended, BSkyB has been running another promotion, ￡30 off the price of HDTV set-top boxes or Sky Plus personal video recorders to all customers of more than three years. Christian Cull, BSkyB director of customer communications, said that the promotion had "helped all around" by both increasing sales and customer satisfaction. "HD sales are up 40 per cent on where we thought they would be - we have seen a surge against our expectations," he said.