Sky Deutschland delivered the first positive full year EBITDA under the Sky brand of €35 million (2012: negative €51 million), which represents a €86 million year-on-year improvement.
The number of direct subscribers grew by 304,000 to 3,667,000 customers at year end (2012: 3,363,000). In addition, the number of wholesale subscribers increased by 143,000 to 268,000 (2012: 125,000) as a consequence of the inclusion of Deutsche Telekom’s former Ligatotal IPTV and mobile customers. Gross additions amounted to 698,000.
Sky’s Premium HD offering grew by 285,000 (2012: 540,000) to 1,799,000 (2012: 1,514,000). When including customers with free access to this package, for example those with the first year free as part of a two-year contract, 2013 saw the number of Premium HD customers increase by an additional 143,000, with a total of 2,025,000 customers now receiving Sky’s Premium HD channels. Over half of Sky customers (55.2%; 2012: 47.5%) have access to Sky’s HD offering.
The number of Sky+ customers grew by 551,000 (2012: 518,000) to 1,480,000 (2012: 929,000). At year end, 40.4% of Sky customers enjoyed the unmatched convenience of a Sky+ receiver in their home (2012: 27.6%).
Sky Zweitkarte (second smartcard) customers increased by 24% (2012: 10.3%) to 429,000 (2012: 346,000).
Total revenues, mainly driven by subscription revenues, increased by 16 percent, reaching €1,546 million (2012: €1,333 million). Total costs excluding depreciation were €1,512 million (2012: €1,384 million), representing cost growth of just 4% when excluding the effect of the enhanced Bundesliga rights.
Net income also improved strongly and amounted to negative €133 million (2012: negative €195 million).