BSkyB has made "significant progress" towards meeting its timetable for introducing digital television in Britain next spring, the satellite broadcaster said yesterday. The company said the new satellite service would include an "extended range of basic and premium channels and a near video on demand movie service", but did not give any new details.

The news came as the company announced pre-tax profits of £314 million sterling in the year to June 30th, up from £257 million in the previous financial year.

BSkyB said it had made "significant progress" towards meeting the spring timetable. It said it had placed orders for up to a million of the telvision set-top boxes needed for the service, reserved capacity on its new satellite, and invested in infrastructure.

In May, BSkyB announced it was setting up a joint venture - British Interactive Broadcasting - with BT, Midland Bank and Matsushita to subsidise the set-top boxes needed to receive digital television from both satellite and terrestrial services.

BSkyB's financial results also revealed the number of total paying subscribers rose by 878,000 to 6.37 million, while revenues were up 26 per cent to £1.27 billion.

However, the outgoing chief executive warned that minority channels will go to the wall if television watchdogs force BSkyB to "unbundle" its channel offerings. The Independent Television Commission asked Sky to address the issue after cable operators protested that they could not sell the Disney Channel separately from Sky's two premium movie channels.

BSkyB chief executive Mr Sam Chisholm said: "I think the ITC will look very carefully at unbundling. It would be a shame to lose those small channels, and unbundling would guarantee that.

"Our position isn't motivated by mere self interest, it is by what is the best environment for multi-channel television."