21st Apr 2015 06:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sky PLC Tuesday posted a rise in operating profit for the first nine months of its financial year, as customer growth across its businesses and strong performances from the UK and Ireland and from Germany helped bolster revenue.
The broadcaster posted an operating profit of GBP10.3 billion in the nine months to the end of March, up from GBP854 million a year before, on revenue growth to GBP8.45 billion from GBP8.05 billion. In the UK and Ireland, revenue was up 6% to GBP5.82 billion from GBP5.49 billion, while revenue in Germany were up 9% to GBP1.04 billion from GBP951 million, offsetting a slight decline in Italy were revenue fell to GBP1.59 billion from GBP1.61 billion.
Sky was expected to post revenue of GBP8.44 billion for the nine months, according to consensus expectations from six analysts provided by the company
Sky said it had added 242,000 net new customers in its third quarter, taking its total customer base to 20.8 million.
Across all three segments of the business, Sky saw a reduction in customer churn on a twelve month rolling basis.
The company said that, whilst it is still "early days", it is making good progress with the integration of Sky Italia Srl and Sky Deutschland AG, and it is on track for its targeted GBP200 million in run-rate synergies by the end of the second full year after the completion of the acquisition.
"As these results demonstrate, our teams are working well together right across the new Sky. Five months in, our integration plans are progressing well and we are well positioned for the expanded growth opportunity ahead," said Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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