Sky Network Television, the leading pay-TV operator in New Zealand, added nearly 45,000 subscribers for the year that closed at the end of June, bringing its total subscriber base to nearly 715,000, the company announced Aug. 17. The operator also posted a nearly 30 percent increase in profits compared to the previous business year.

During the most recent year, Sky moved its services from the Optus B1 satellite to Optus D1, which was placed into orbit in November. Sky also launched mobile video services on the Vodafone 3G network in February.

The operator plans to launch high-definition (HD) services in New Zealand as well as a second-generation set-top box incorporating HDTV and Internet Protocol TV capability and additional storage capacity prior to the end of the 2008 financial year.