Sky’s next generation platform Sky Q is now in 2.5 million homes in the UK, Ireland and Italy. The broadcaster announced the figure with its third quarter trading statement and confirmed that the Spotify premium music service would launch on the platform next week.
Sky reported a 5% increase in like for like revenue at £10.1 billion. Operating profit was up 22% at £857 million (€984m).
As well as a rollout in Germany, as reported in Broadband TV News earlier this week, there are plans for a redesign to the user interface, a new dedicated kids mode and new voice controls.
CEO Jeremy Darroch said Sky’s priorities remained unchanged against a back drop of a challenging consumer environment. “We’re giving more customers the best viewing experience with the further development and roll out of Sky Q, now in millions of homes and launching in Germany & Austria in two weeks’ time as part of the ongoing transformation of our business in these markets. Customers can look forward to an even broader choice of entertainment through our pioneering new partnerships with Netflix and Spotify, together with our new Premier League deal which secures the UK rights until 2022.”
However, while Germany waits for the May 2 launch of Sky Q, the subscriber base fell by 30,000 on the quarter, though overall the year-over-year figure was up at 5.2 million. Italy also saw an erosion of 2,000 customers at 4.8 million; growth in DTH customers offset by the continuing decline in Telecom Italia IPTV.
The UK market continues to grow with another 70,000 customers taking the installed base in the UK & Ireland to 13 million.
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