Sky soars in Germany, UK

European pay TV group Sky has revealed it added a record number of customers in Germany during the last three months, following the merger of its operations across Europe.

BSkyB completed its takeover of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia late last year – at a cost of US$10.87bn – and the newly enlarged company’s first results show it has since added nearly 500,000 new customers across its operations.

The satcaster pulled in 214,000 customers in Germany during the second quarter to the end of December, while 204,000 new pay TV customers signed up in the UK, the most for nearly a decade. Sky Italia added 30,000 new customers.

It takes Sky’s overall subscriber numbers to 24.8 million, with analysts at Numis and Barclays putting much of the customer growth down to a reduction in ‘churn’, the process of existing customers leaving the business.

In an earnings call, Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch added that economies of scale and shows such as forthcoming drama Critical and new series Fortitude, which recently debuted on the satcaster and has been sold internationally by Sky Vision, would assist with further growth.

He said the European merger would give the company “an expanded opportunity for growth” and described the results as “an excellent operational and financial performance.”

Darroch refused to be drawn on the auction taking place this week for rights to Premier League football, adding that the business was “so much more than just that.”

Sky reported a 16% rise in adjusted operating profits to £675m (US$1.2bn) in its first-half results.