Sky Sees Revenue, Subscriber Gains

LONDON: While profits fell by 15 percent to £623 million ($1.05 billion), BSkyB posted a 6.6-percent improvement in its revenues for the nine months ended March 31, 2014, and reported 74,000 net new TV customers.

Total revenues at the company for the period were £5.7 billion ($9.6 billion). The company reported a total of 34.1 million paid-for subscription products, with 764,000 new additions in Q3. At the end of March the platform had 10.6 million TV customers, with 5.1 million on HD, 5.2 million broadband subs and 4.9 million telephony customers. Some 37 percent of Sky customers take the triple play bundle. ARPU rose slightly to £571 million ($965 million). Churn for the period was 10.9 percent.

“We have had a strong third quarter and continued to grow at an accelerated rate as customers respond to the quality and breadth of our offering," Jeremy Darroch, chief executive, said in announcing the results. "Nine months into our plans for the year, we have added almost a third more new paid-for subscription products than in the same period last year. Our investment in connected TV services is delivering results. Almost 50 percent of Sky homes are now connected and this is transforming their viewing experience: connected customers are watching more TV, they’re more loyal and they’re more likely to recommend Sky. Our expanded Box Sets service has been particularly popular with a fourfold increase in viewing of top titles like 24 and Game of Thrones."

Darroch concluded: "We’re now more than three quarters of the way through our plan for the year and are on track to deliver returns in line with our expectations.”