Sky has recorded its best first quarter customer additions in six years.
Parent Comcast revealled the figures during the announcement of its own Q1 financials.
“At Sky, customer relationship additions increased by 221,000, marking the best first quarter result in six years despite the lockdowns imposed throughout Europe. Across all parts of the company, our teams are executing at a high level and collaborating to drive growth and innovation, and I couldn’t be more excited about our future,” commented Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Corporation in a prepared statement.
The figures take Sky’s total customer relationships to 23.4 million.
Revenue at Sky, which has operations in the UK, Germany and Italy, increased 10.6% to $5.0 billion in the first quarter of 2021. Direct-to-consumer revenue increased 1.8% to $4.1 billion, driven by increases in average revenue per customer relationship and customer relationships. Advertising revenue increased 3.4% to $574 million, due to higher advanced advertising revenue in the UK. Content revenue increased 1.7% to $358 million, primarily due to higher wholesale revenue from sports programming.
The UK advertising market is also beginning to rebound more quickly that expected. Sky generated $364 million in EBITDA in the first quarter.