British telecoms company BT raised its core earnings and cash flow outlook on Friday after cost cuts and strong demand for broadband services helped it post full-year results slightly ahead of expectations.
The numbers come a day after the group announced it is to offer free live Premier League soccer games to its broadband customers for the first time in history, a direct challenge to BSkyB's dominance of the U.K. sports pay-TV market.
BT shares rose 9 percent on Friday morning after the results.
"Competition is a good thing, it's part of a capitalist society...we will be spending in the region of 1 billion pounds in growth costs," Ian Livingston, the CEO of BT Group told CNBC Friday.
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"We can do that bold move because we are becoming a lot more efficient as a business...It's going to be very, very high quality."
The telecoms group said full-year core earnings were up 2 percent at 6.2 billion pounds ($9.6 billion), ahead of a consensus of 6.1 billion pounds, but revenue was down 5 percent. BT raised its dividend by 14 percent.