The German premium broadcaster Sky Deutschland surpassed 3 million customers on December 31, 2011 and has secured additional financing of €300 million for continued growth and product innovation.
Sky D’s subscriber numbers grew by 359,000 during the year, almost twice the net growth of 2010 (183,000), and the highest net growth in the company’s history. Gross additions in 2011 amounted to 671,000, representing a 12% increase compared to the previous year (599,000). The 12-month rolling churn rate decreased to 11.0% (Q4 2010: 16.2%).
Sky’s Premium HD service continued to grow, with customer take-up increasing by more than 60% to 974,000 (2010: 593,000). At the end of 2011, a total of 32% of all Sky customers subscribed to Sky Premium HD. By the end of 2011, there were 411,000 Sky+ customers.
Sky Go was launched in April 2011, making possible on-demand TV via the web, iPad, iPhone and Xbox 360. In nine months Sky Go gained 594,000 active users and achieved over 4 million unique viewer sessions in Q4 alone.
In a statement, Brian Sullivan, CEO of Sky Deutschland, said: “In 2011 we delivered a number of key milestones in building our business for a profitable future. Overall our results reflect the best performance in the history of the company: we are attracting new customers at the fastest pace ever, and customer satisfaction and recommendation levels are at all-time highs.
While we remain cautious in these uncertain economic times, we have a clear vision for continued growth: to serve existing customers and attract new ones by delivering great value, high-quality and exclusive content, new and exciting innovations and continued improvements to our customer service. To have over three million customers actively choosing Sky is a fantastic achievement but we expect more to come and there is still more to do. The additional funding announced today will support us to further drive these efforts, to continue building an exciting service for our customers and a valuable business for our shareholders.”
In 2011 revenues increased by 17% to €1,139 million (2010: €977 million). EBITDA improved by 42% to negative €155 million (2010: negative €269 million). The average revenue per user (ARPU) further increased by €1.77 to €30.46 (2010: €28.68).
