Sky Posts Profit, Revenue Gains

LONDON: Sky delivered revenues of £8.7 billion ($12.5 billion) for the nine months ended March 31, 2016, a 5-percent gain on the same period last year, with operating profit rising 12 percent to £1.1 billion ($1.6 billion).

“It’s been another strong quarter for Sky,” said Group Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch. “Our strategy to broaden our business, expanding into new markets and customer segments, has delivered further excellent financial results with revenue up 5 percent and a double-digit growth in profit.

“Our promise of world-class content, commitment to innovation and brilliant service is persuading more customers to join and stay with Sky, in every market. As we pass the major milestone of 40 million products in U.K. and Irish households, we will continue to execute this successful approach across the group.”

The platform reported a higher churn rate in the U.K. and Ireland, of 10.7 percent from 10.1 percent. In Germany and Austria churn rose from 8.5 percent to 9.8 percent. In Italy it increased from 9.7 percent to 11 percent. Sky added 177,000 new customers in Q3, taking its total customer base to 21.7 million. In the U.K. there were 70,000 new retail customers. The German operation recorded 73,000 new customers and posted its first-ever operating profit. There were 34,000 new retail customers in Italy, the platform’s highest quarterly customer growth in four years.

Revenues from the British and Irish operations showed a 6 percent gain to £6.2 billion, and the Germany and Austria service was up 10 percent to £1.1 billion. Revenues from Italy dipped slightly to £1.5 billion.

Subscription revenues in total rose 4 percent across the group. Transactional revenue, including Sky Store and NOW TV, rose 21 percent. Ad revenues gained 7 percent and program and channel sales were up 18 percent.