BT Group has said it signed up a record 106,000 TV customers in the second quarter of its financial year, boosted by the start of the telecoms operator's Champions League football coverage.
It said the extra viewers helped lift adjusted pre-tax profits in the six months to the end of September by five per cent to £1.4 billion compared to a year ago.
Revenue was flat in the three months to the end of September at £4.38bn.
It was marginally down to just short of £8.66bn in the first six months of the company's financial year.
Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: "We've seen good demand for BT Sport Europe and this has helped us add a record number of BT TV customers in the quarter.
"Its contribution has been better than we expected, helping drive a seven per cent increase in BT Consumer revenue."
BT added that its mobile base now stands at 200,000 customers since it re-entered the market earlier in the year.
Mr Patterson said: "Mobile is another growth area."
On Wednesday, the competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally approved BT's £12.5 billion merger with mobile phone firm EE.
In the summer the telecom's operator launched its coverage of all Champions League and Europa League matches free this season following the launch of the BT Sport Europe channel. BT has paid £897 million to show the games for three years.
Mr Patterson also outlined the group's fibre broadband roll-out is continuing to connect to premises across the UK.
He added: Our open access fibre network now passes 24 million premises and we are not stopping there. We want to get fibre broadband to as many people as possible and we are also pushing ahead with our plans to get ultrafast broadband to ten million premises by the end of 2020. "Market-wide demand for fibre remains strong with fibre net additions up 21 per cent as we hit the five million milestone for homes and businesses connected."
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