What a month for James Murdoch. Having been grilled by politicians over the News Of The World phone hacking scandal, he is back in the news this week with PayTV platform BSkyB, the company that he chairs, reporting pre-tax profits of £1.03bn in the year to June 2011. That”s the first time Sky has cracked the billion mark and comes in tandem with a 16% increase in revenues to £6.6bn.

“This has been a year of outstanding operational and financial results for Sky,” said Murdoch who held onto his role as chairman after a board vote.

In terms of other numbers, BSkyB added 426,000 customers in the year, taking its total to 10.3m. It added 327,000 TV & 711,000 broadband customers for the year. The only negative was a quarter on quarter drop in ARPU (down around £5 to £539).

Sky continues to invest heavily in content. This week it teamed up with Atlantic Productions to create a multi-million pound joint venture called Colossus that will specialise in 3D content. Anthony Geffen – CEO and Creative Director at Atlantic Productions – will serve as Creative Director of Colossus Productions though Atlantic will retain its separate identity. Atlantic”s 2D productions as well as its previous and current 3D productions (eg Flying Monsters 3D) will remain under the Atlantic name. Future 3D film and TV projects (broadcast on Sky 3D and then distributed internationally to broadcast/theatrical platforms), and any digital activity around them, will now go via Colossus.