Sky Reports Revenue Gains

Sky’s revenues for the nine months ended March 31, 2017, were up by 11 percent to £9.6 billion ($12.3 billion), with the company adding 106,000 customers in Q3.

As of the end of March, Sky had 22.4 million customers, adding 769,000 over the last year. Its revenues out of the U.K. and Ireland rose by 4 percent to reach £6.4 billion, while Germany and Austria generated revenues of £1.4 billion, a 28-percent gain, and Italy £1.8 billion, a 25 percent increase. Operating profit was £1 billion, down slightly on the year-ago period, due to higher Premier League costs, investments in Sky Q and Sky Mobile and a weaker U.K. ad market.

“It’s been another strong quarter for Sky, despite this being our seasonally quietest period,” said Jeremy Darroch, chief executive. “We’ve made good progress on the growth plans that we laid out. We launched Sky Mobile to create a substantial new source of revenue and profits. We have continued to improve the customer experience with further enhancements to our Sky Q and Sky+ platforms as well as the launch of our digital customer service via the My Sky app. We have concluded a number of long-term rights renewals and are announcing today a major new multiyear co-production deal with HBO, as well as a groundbreaking virtual reality experience in partnership with Sir David Attenborough and the Natural History Museum.

“Looking forward, we enter the final quarter of our fiscal year in good shape. Despite the broader consumer environment remaining uncertain, we continue to deliver on our strategy and are on track for the full year.”