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BT keeps heat on Sky with good start to year

Published: 08:40 28 Jul 2016 BST

BT Sport studio and presenters
BT Sport will be showing Premier League football in a better time-slot during the forthcoming season

BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) kept up the challenge to rival Sky in its fiscal first quarter despite the controversy over its Openreach network arm.

BT reported a 25% rise in underlying earnings to £1.82bn and a 16% increase in adjusted pre-tax profit to £802mln on a 35% lift in revenue to £5.7bn.

Chief executive Gavin Patterson said: "We've made a good start to the year, with growth in revenue and strong cash flow. We're on track to achieve our full-year outlook."

Earlier this week, telecoms watchdog Ofcom recommended that Openreach should be run as a discrete company within BT.

BT said the changes it had proposed would make Openreach more independent and transparent.

Turning back to the results, BT said it had reduced engineer missed appointments by more than a third since last quarter and Openreach was again ahead on all 60 minimum service levels set by Ofcom.

It said its integration of mobile phone group EE was progressing well, alongside its business reorganisation that took effect on April 1.

The company's television business renewed its rights to show the FA Cup on BT Sport during the quarter.

"We look forward to showing more games from the Premier League at a much better time slot, starting in two weeks," Patterson said.

"Our customers can also look forward to all the exclusive live action from the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League once again this year."

Shares in BT rose 12.15p, or 3%, to 414.25p in early London trading.

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