Sky juggernaut rolls on in third quarter

Results for the nine months ended 31 March 2016 for Sky have shown clearly the continued growth in profits and revenues for the pan-European pay-TV giant.



SkylogoDescribing the basic financial numbers as ‘excellent’, Sky posted a 5% year-on-year increase in group revenue to £8.715 billion, while operating profit was up 12% compared with the same period in 2015 to £1.143 billion.

Subscription revenue, the company’s largest category, delivered revenue growth of 4% across the group. Transactional revenue was our fastest growing segment, up 21% to £141 million, with the continued strong performance of Sky Store in the UK, growing demand for NOW TV Sports passes and three major pay-per-view boxing events in the year to date.

Programme and channel sales revenue was up 18% and advertising revenue up 7%. Programme and channel sales revenue benefited from growing international programme sales of original commissions through Sky Vision, the consolidation of Blast! Films and Jupiter Entertainment, and continued growth in channel distribution revenues. 

Over the past 12 months Sky has added 806,000 retail customers and over 3.5 million paid-for products. 177,000 new customers joined the company in the third quarter, using 686,000 more products in Sky homes. The company noted that it benefited from a TV price rise in the UK in June and that growth had been achieved with the absence of the Champions League in the UK and Italy. However, churn rates rose across all three of the company’s territories — UK and Ireland, Germany and Austria and Italy — from 10.1% to 10.7%; 8.5% to 9.8%; and 9.7% to 11.0% respectively.

Commenting on the results, Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch, said: “Our strategy to broaden our business, expanding into new markets and customer segments, has delivered further excellent financial results ... 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 UK and Irish households, we will continue to execute this successful approach across the group.”