COST CUTS SUCCESS FOR BT; yourmoney.(Business)

Byline: CLINTON MANNING

SAVAGE cost cutting and its best broadband figures for eight years have helped BT more than double profits. The company made pounds 441million in the last three months of 2010, up from pounds 209m a year earlier, despite a 3% revenue drop. The leap owed much to a pounds 238million reduction in costs, following more than 30,000 job losses in the past two years. But boss Ian Livingston also trumpeted some notable successes. BT Global Services, which suffered a nightmare 2009, has won a phone and internet contract for bookmaker Gala Coral's 1,600 outlets. BT Retail signed up 188,000 more broadband subscribers, 53% of the market. That was BT's highest share since 2003, but still less than Sky's 204,000. Their combined success means TalkTalk, Orange or Virgin, must have lost business. BT Vision, the group's internet TV business, signed up 40,000 more customers, twice as many as a year ago, helped by the launch of a cut-price Sky Sports package. It means BT customers now spend an average of pounds 322, up pounds 5 on a year ago, but well below the pounds 541 Sky rakes in.