Sky releases 3Q 2015 results

SKY plc has released unaudited results for the three months ended 30 September 2015.

“In the UK and Ireland our investments in content and connected services helped to deliver customer growth of 77,000, up over 50% year on year and the highest rate of Q1 customer growth for four years. We also added 759,000 paid-for products, including 43,000 new TV additions and 133,000 new broadband additions, growth of 77% year on year. Churn of 9.8% was down 110 basis points year on year, our lowest Q1 level for 11 years. Revenue was up 7% to £2,003 million (2015: £1,869 million) which drove a 20% increase in profit to £358 million (2015: £299 million) helped by our strong focus on costs.

In Germany and Austria, we added 94,000 new customers. Total product growth was 236,000, including another strong quarter of Sky Premium HD, and churn was down 40 basis points year on year to 9.0%, aided by the impact of 24-month contracts. Revenue was up 11% to £336 million (2015: £304 million) whilst we recorded a loss of £8 million (2015: profit of £8 million) as the result of increased Bundesliga and Champions League costs and the change in amortisation profile.

Italy delivered a resilient performance against a challenging economic backdrop, and the loss of the Champions League rights on a platform that is more sports-focused. In the quarter, we had a loss of 37,000 customers with products down 58,000, largely driven by a one-time increase in HD subscribers in the prior year as we unbundled the HD product. We saw another good performance on churn which remained at 10.0%. Revenue was down 4% to £454 million (2015: £474 million) largely due to lower customer numbers, although down only 3% on an underlying basis excluding the impact of the discontinuation of programme sales to Mediaset Premium and advertising revenues from the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Profit was down £8 million year on year to £25 million (2015: £33 million).”