BSkyB have revealed they are just 156,000 customers away from reaching its target of 8million subscribers by the end of the year.

57,000 subscribers were added in the three months between July and September which now gives the pay-tv company 7,844,000 subscribers.

The figure was considerbaly lower than this time last year where they added 62,000 in the same quarter.

But with the traditionally strong pre-Christmas period to come, most analysts expect Sky to pass the 8 million mark by the end of next month.

The company also reported that the number of households signing up to the Sky+ personal video recorder service has now exceeded 1m.

By at the end of September, 1,027,000 households subscribed to the service, up from 888,000 three months earlier.

There was also an increase to multiroom subscribers by 103,000 in the quarter to 748,000.

BSkyB also announced that their shares plunged 7% after they announced their latest subscriber results.

The company's share price fell by 37p to 490p just after 9am today, before rallying to 495p. It is the first time Sky's share price has gone below £5 since October last year.