Sky Perfect Communications Inc., operator of the Sky PerfecTV digital broadcasting service, said Wednesday it incurred a consolidated net loss of 4.64 billion yen in the first half of this business year, compared with a loss of 15.89 billion yen a year earlier.

The company, which said it is not yet in a position to break even as it is still in the up-front investment stage, attributed the smaller loss to an increase in the number of subscribers, especially to major league baseball and other sports, as well as to efforts to curb costs.

Sky PerfecTV aired more than 200 MLB games to capitalize on the popularity of Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and other Japanese players.

Sky Perfect Communications also reported a consolidated pretax loss of 4.81 billion yen, down from 15.89 billion yen a year earlier, on consolidated operating revenues of 28.85 billion yen. The 31.9 percent rise comes thanks to a 100 yen hike in basic reception charges and a net increase of 216,000 in the number of subscribers to 2,834,000 as of Sept. 30, the firm said.

For the full year to March, Sky Perfect Communications anticipates a consolidated net loss of 13.5 billion yen and a pretax loss of 14 billion yen on group operating revenues of 63 billion yen. The corresponding figures for the previous year were 24.19 billion yen, 24.34 billion yen and 48.68 billion yen.