Sky Deutschland CEO Brian Sullivan says the paycaster’s strong second quarter can be attributed to a combination of a great sports offering and product innovation.
Net customer growth of 47,900 was fractionally ahead of 2012, bringing the subscriber base to 3,453,000. Quarterly annualised churn improved to 9.7% from 9.9%, though the 12-month rolling churn rate rose to 12% from 11.5% in Q2 2012.
The company said the results came against the background of the outbound telesales channel at the beginning of this year, which was put in place to improve subscriber and revenue growth.
Brian Sullivan, CEO of Sky Deutschland: “We had a great second quarter with continued strong operational and financial performance highlighted by a positive quarterly and half-year EBITDA. With Bundesliga exclusivity, an unrivalled sport offering, great new channels, innovative products and a significantly expanded distribution position, we have set the stage for the second half of this year and beyond.”
Revenues in Q2 2013 grew by 15% to €375.4 million from €326.7 million in the corresponding quarter. Subscription revenues were the key driver with an ARPU increase of €1.58 to €33.74.
Sky HD continues to grow with an additional 83,600 subscribers added in the quarter to reach 1,697,000. Close to half of Sky-D’s customers now take the premium HD service, following the recent additions of Sport1 US, Syfy HD, 13th Street and E! Entertainment.
The Sky+ PVR also continues to add new homes. 1,170,600 now take the service, 393,000 subscribers have a second smart card.
Sky Go recorded almost 16.7 million customer logins, a considerable increase on the 6.9 million in Q2 2012, with episodes of the first three seasons of the HBO series Game of Thrones being streamed over one million times since April 2013 alone.
The 50th anniversary Bundesliga season provided a major boost to viewer numbers for Sky’s coverage. At its peak the market share of the Bundesliga Conference on Saturday, as measured by the AGF, hit 26.2% among male viewers between 14 and 49 years.
