Sky has reported a 12% increase in its full year operating profits.
The pay-TV platform recorded a 7% rise in revenues at £11,965 million with adjusted operating profit up 12% to £1,558 million.
800,000 new customers were added for TV, telephone and broadband. But with a large bundle of services retention is easier on some rather than others.
UK churn is at a recent high, climbing to 11.2% from 9.8% 12 months back. “We’ve over a million broadband customers and as you’d expect these customers churn at a higher rate, between 15 and 20%, and that drags up the total. TV churn is exactly what it was two years ago,” said Sky CFO Andrew Griffith
UK revenues are now in excess of £8 billion, while in Germany and Austria the company has achieved its first-ever full year operating profit. Sky 1 is to launch in Germany with an exclusive version of cookery competition MasterChef.
Sky has 10,606,000 customers in the UK and Ireland, 3,132,000 in Germany and Austria and 4,901,000 Italy, which has seen its first growth in some time as Italy comes out of recession.
In Sports split screen viewing will allow audiences to follow two events simultaneously; Watch from the Start, already proving popular with movies, will also be introduced.
The new Sky Sports Mix will launch on August 24 in the Basic tier. Darroch said this would further monetise Sky’s investment in sports rights.