LONDON (REUTERS) - Mr Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun said it had more than doubled its online subscribers to 225,000 in a year, partly helping shore up declining print sales.

The company is using a package of video clips of goals from Premier League soccer matches and other sporting rights to attract users to its 7.99 pounds (S$16.35) a month online package.

The newspaper started charging for access to its website in August 2013, breaking ranks with other tabloids such as the Daily Mail and The Mirror, which post stories for free consumption.

Combining its digital subscriber number for November with its print sale in October, which was down 8 per cent year-on-year using ABC numbers, resulted in a 2.2 per cent drop in total paid sales Monday to Saturday of 2,203,000 a day.

Online subscribers were helping smooth out the print decline, editor of The Sun David Dinsmore said. If numbers kept growing, total sales could level out and even start growing in 12-24 months.

Mr Murdoch's other British titles, The Times and the Sunday Times, have been charging for online content since 2010.