The war by press release over which connected TV service is in pole position continues with Sky declaring 4.4 million customers now hooked up to its On Demand service. A further one million customers have connected their Sky+HD boxes to broadband over the last three months alone.
Amid record breaking figures across Sky On Demand and multiscreen service Sky Go, the satcaster has announced plans for a major revamp to its Electronic Programme Guide.
However, increased costs including a one-off Premier League payment saw profits slip to £595 million in the six months to December 31, 2013 from £647 million in the prior year.
2013 was a record-breaking year for connected TV viewing – with more than 450 million on demand requests through Sky+HD boxes, double the number from 2012. Viewing requests on Sky’s mobile TV service, Sky Go, also grew to 770 million, up from 590 million in 2012.
During Christmas week, Sky customers set a new weekly record with a total of 35 million viewing requests to their Sky+HD box or smartphone, tablet or computer. This is up more than 50% on the previous Christmas and represents a new weekly record for Sky’s connected TV services. On average, connected Sky TV homes downloaded more than five on demand TV shows or movies to their Sky+HD box alone during Christmas week.
Christmas week also provided the best ever performance for the paid for Sky Store, with well over half a million movies rented through the service including World War Z, Man of Steel and After Earth during those seven days.
As part of the resdesign to the Sky Guide a brand new homepage will showcase all the viewing options available to Sky TV customers, including Catch Up TV, TV Box Sets, Sky+ Planner and Sky Store, as well as the live TV Guide. This brings together all content available to customers on a single page, rather than requiring the, to search for it.
“The rapid growth in on demand viewing shows just how much customers love watching TV on their own terms – whether that’s the latest movies available instantly on demand on their living room TV set or to catch up with last night’s new drama series on the way to work,” said Luke Bradley-Jones, Sky’s Director of TV Products. “We’re passionate about giving our customers their favourite content however they want to watch and will continue to make Sky’s connected TV services even bigger and better during 2014, including an enhanced EPG that makes it even easier to find on demand content.”
Similar changes have been made in the past few weeks on Sky Deutschland.
