Sky Posts “Exceptional” Results, Plans to Up Drama Investment

Sky has reported strong full-year results, with a 5 percent gain in revenues of £13.6 billion ($17.9 billion) and a 9 percent increase in EBIDTA of £2.4 billion ($3.2 billion).

Sky operates in seven markets, serving more than 23 million households, who are enjoying 63 million Sky subscription products. In total, its services now reach more than 120 million people across Europe. Sky Q is now in 3.6 million homes, up 2.3 million year-on-year. This is helping to deliver significant long-term benefits, Sky said, including lower churn, more incremental ARPU and higher customer satisfaction scores. Overall, Sky’s 12-month rolling churn was 10.3 percent, its lowest level in a decade.

Sky has pledged to up its investment in original drama by around 25 percent. It plans to invest around four times more in Germany and Austria, which are where its original content strategy is least developed. Almost 50 percent of Sky’s shows will be returning franchises, including the next seasons of Riviera, Babylon Berlin and Gomorrah.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s group chief executive, commented: “It’s been an exceptional year. We’ve delivered another set of strong results with like-for-like revenues up 5 percent, established business EBITDA up 11 percent and EPS up 10 percent. Over half a million new customers joined Sky this year and we now have 63 million products in customer’s homes as they continue to choose Sky over other providers. As a consequence, we have extended our leadership position as Europe’s largest direct-to-consumer media and entertainment business.

“Our strong performance reflects the execution of our strategy over an extended period of time, driving sustained growth in revenue, profits and shareholder returns. We do this by providing our customers more of the best content, world-class innovation in products and services, combined with industry-leading front-line service. Together with an increasingly agile and efficient organization, we are able to deliver for shareholders whilst ensuring the customer experience is better than anywhere else.

“Importantly, this strategy is now widely implemented across the Group. In the U.K. and Ireland, our largest market, we’ve delivered an excellent operational and financial performance whilst scaling our new initiatives. In Germany and Austria, we have comprehensively upgraded all our services as part of our plans for sustained long-term growth in what is Europe’s largest TV market. In Italy, we’ve had a ground-breaking year, opening up significant new growth opportunities for our business by offering new services over DTT and fiber, allowing us to reach new segments of the market.

“Alongside this, we’ve put in place further building blocks for future growth. We’ve secured more exclusive coverage of major sports events for our customers and our investment in Sky original productions is being widely recognized by customers and critics alike. We’ve rolled out Sky Q to all our major territories meaning a growing number of customers can enjoy the benefits of Europe’s best home entertainment service, and our agreements with Netflix, Mediaset, BT and Spotify will further enhance and extend our customer offer.

“We, therefore, enter the year ahead with good momentum. We have an excellent set of plans and we’re focused on executing them well. We are proud that Sky is recognized globally as an outstanding business and are confident we have the right assets and capabilities to continue creating long-term growth opportunities and to capitalize on the strong position we’ve built.”