BSKYB intends to create 550 jobs across its retail and customer service operations to help deal with soaring customer numbers.

In Scotland, there will be 10 new jobs in consumer facing sales with a further 190 of that type around the rest of the UK.

Newcastle will get the bulk of the roles with around 350 people being hired at BSkyB's customer service centre there.

The media group said its revenue for the nine months to March 31 this year was up 6% from £5.08 billion to £5.38bn with increases in retail, wholesale and Sky Bet more than offsetting lower income from advertising, installation, hardware and servicing.

Pre-tax profit rose 9% from £853 million to £934m in spite of a 9% rise in programming costs to £1.86bn driven by the inclusion of the rights for the Ryder Cup, Formula 1 and England's football World Cup qualifying matches.

It was confirmed BSkyB has renewed the rights for the ATP and US Open tennis as well as securing RaboDirect Pro 12 rugby for the first time.

Around 715,000 subscribers across areas including tele-vision, broadband and telecoms were added in the third quarter covering January to March.

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said take up of next generation television services was increasing with internet connected Sky+ High Definition boxes up almost 600,000 in the quarter.

On Demand downloads grew 500% and movie rentals by 37% year-on-year with hits such as Skyfall, and Argo available to watch at the same times as the DVD release.

Across the quarter a net of 70,000 retail and 50,000 wholesale customers were added, bringing the total to 14.6 million.

However, the annualised churn rate rose slightly to 10.8% which was attributed to the "continuing pressure on household budgets".

BSkyB said 34% of customers now take its television, broadband and telephone services, up from 31% a year ago, while the average revenue per user increased from £546 to £576.