Sky’s the limit as customer growth accelerates for TV giant
THE highest customer growth and lowest churn for 11 years has seen Sky enjoy an excellent third quarter as it looks forward to further expansion.
It added 242,000 net new customers in the first three months of the year – almost 70% more than the prior year – to take its customer base to 20.8m. It increased paid-for subscription products by 1.0m, growing total product sales to 3.8m for the nine months of its financial year.
The company employs about 1,200 people in and around Leeds in a range of roles, including technologists, customer service advisers, sales teams and engineers.
Last month Sky completed the deal to spin-out its Leeds-based betting and gaming company SkyBet, to CVC Capital Partners, in a deal which valued the business at £800m. Sky has retained a minority stake in the business while banking a profit of approximately £600m.
Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s group chief executive, said: “We have delivered an excellent third quarter as customers across the enlarged Sky group respond to the quality and breadth of what we offer. In all, we attracted almost 70% more new customers than the prior year and over one million new products. By continuing the strong operating momentum of the first half, we have grown revenues by 5% and operating profit by 20% over the nine months.”
Group revenues increased by £400m to £8.45bn while operating profit rose £170m to £1.03bn.
He added: “The UK and Ireland delivered a stand-out performance, reporting both the highest customer growth and lowest churn for eleven years. We took share in broadband and grew strongly in TV as our dual-brand strategy with NOW TV and Sky continues to deliver. At the same time, Germany enjoyed another record quarter of growth and Italy posted its best Q3 customer growth in three years.”
