Loss for Sky Deutschland in Q2

MUNICH: Sky Deutschland’s writeoff of the Premiere brand name resulted in the German pay-TV platform recording a second-quarter net loss of 365.8 million euros.

The decision to discontinue the Sky brand name cost 253.9 million euros, the company said. Total revenues in the period, meanwhile, were down by 21.5 percent to 230.6 million euros. At the end of the period, the platform had 2.36 million direct subscribers, a 7,000 reduction on the first quarter. ARPU increased to 25.20 euros.

Announcing the results, CEO Mark Williams said: "We are very pleased with progress since the successful launch of Sky on July 4, with awareness of the Sky brand very quickly exceeding 50 percent. In these first few weeks, we have seen a very positive reaction from both our existing customers upgrading to the new expanded range of Sky services, including our new comprehensive HD offer, as well as a strong increase in the rate of subscriber additions."