Pay-TV giant BSkyB on Thursday announced modest net profits for the third quarter of its financial year thanks to strong subscriber growth and demand for high definition services.

BSkyB posted net profit of 3.0 million pounds for the three months to the end of March, compared with a loss of 6.0 million pounds in the same period a year earlier.

The satellite television provider, whose biggest shareholder is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, said group revenue rose 12 percent to 1.395 billion pounds in its third quarter.

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch warned that trading conditions remained tough but said that many Britons were choosing to stay at home amid a deepening recession.

“We have made a strong start to calendar 2009,” Darroch said in a results statement.

But he added: “Looking ahead to the rest of calendar 2009, we expect conditions to remain challenging.

“In this environment, and at a time when people are spending more time at home, we will continue to provide our customers great entertainment and money-saving broadband and telephony.”

Subscribers to its TV service advanced 0.9 percent to 9.318 million, on the back of keen demand for its High Definition-TV service which offers better picture quality.

BSkyB also enjoyed rising demand for its broadband Internet and landline telephone services.