BSkyB has moved past TalkTalk to become the third largest broadband provider in the UK in the three months to the end of September, as growth in TV subscriber numbers slowed.

BSkyB, which reported a 6% fall in pre-tax profit to £288m for the period, added 102,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter to take its total customer base to just over 4.1m.

The City reacted positively, with BSkyB's share price up nearly 4% to 735p at 9.15am on Thursday.

TalkTalk reported a customer base of 4.047m at the half year. The company has reported seven consecutive quarters of broadband customer losses so it would take a major turnaround for it to retake third position when it reports its third-quarter results in the coming weeks.

BT is the UK's largest broadband provider with about 6.3m customers; Virgin Media is second with more than 4.2m.

The BSkyB chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, was bullish about the growth prospects for its broadband service.

"There is still plenty opportunity for sustained growth, there is a long way to go," he said.

BSkyB outpaced BT, which also reported results for the three months to the end of September on Thursday, which added 81,000 new broadband customers in the period.

BT Vision, the company's pay-TV service, added 21,000 customers in the quarter to take its total base to about 750,000.

Darroch said that BSkyB is yet to start talks with BT, which paid £738m for the rights to key Premier League matches for three years from next season, about carrying the sports channel it intends to launch.

BSkyB reported just 20,000 new TV customers in the quarter, a level of new customers not seen since the late 1990s, taking its total TV base to 10.3 million.

Since hitting the 10 million mark the company has been focusing on cross-selling more of its products to customers. In the third quarter the company added 533,000 products – such as TV, HD or telephony – but this was down 16% on the previous quarter.

BSkyB said that a third of its total customer base now take three products – TV, broadband and telephony – up from 28% in the same period last year. Some 3.5 million customers now take such "triple play" services, up 19% year on year.

The company added 125,000 customers taking HD, to a total of 4.46m, and 120,000 telephony customers to 3.88m.

Average revenue per user, a key metric followed by analysts, rose to a new high of £550. This is £15 more than in the same period last year, but just £2 more than BSkyB reported at the end of June.

BSkyB increased its revenues by 4% to £1.7bn.

"We have made a strong start to the year, delivering another good quarterly performance and continuing to position the business for the long term," said Darroch. "Our investment in high quality content and innovative services has delivered excellent levels of loyalty and generated good growth in customers and products."

BSkyB spent £265m on what it terms marketing costs in the quarter, down £5m on the same period a year ago.

Programming costs increased by 10% year-on-year, £54m, to £589m in the quarter.

The company said that over half of the increase was due to the inclusion of Formula One rights costs for the first time and the biennial Ryder Cup.

There was also a £3m cost for delivering 48 Olympic channels – 24 in standard definition and 24 HD – for the BBC during the London 2012 Games.

Entertainment costs accounted for £17m of the £54m increase, from investment in shows such as Sinbad, Hunderby and The British.

BSkyB admitted, in financial speak, that it does not get a financial return on such shows.

"Whilst we expect such originated high-end content to produce long-term differentiation for our channels, the majority of cost is amortised against first showing," the company said.

BSkyB's share price rose by 26p, or almost 4%, to 735p in early trading as analysts warmed to the results, which were slightly above expectations.

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