LONDON: Sky’s UK operation has reported its best subscriber growth and lowest rate of customers defecting to rivals in more than a decade.
Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of Sky’s enlarged European operation, said the UK and Ireland operation produced the “stand-out performance” in its results for the three months to the end of March.
Total revenues across Sky’s European business grew 5% to £8.45bn in the nine months to the end of March. Group profits rose 20% to £1.02bn, a 20% year-on-year rise over the nine-month period to the end of March.
The UK and Ireland operation accounted for more than £1bn of the profits, Italy grew profits by £5m to £45m, while the German operation reduced its loss by £43m year on year for the nine-month period.
Sky’s UK operation added 127,000 new customers in the company’s third quarter, a 41% increase year on year and the best rate of growth in 11 years for that three month period.
The number of new TV customers, either new subscribers to its traditional TV service or internet operation Now TV or existing customers adding it to their package, grew by 94,000 in the quarter.
UK broadband customer numbers, again either new to Sky or existing customers adding it to their package, rose by 100,000 in the third quarter, a 43% year-on-year increase.
The churn rate in the UK, the proportion of customers leaving Sky, dropped to a low of 10.1%, although the company recently announced price rises of up to 4%.
