Sky plugs in with rival streaming TV service
SKY is taking the fight to streaming rivals Amazon and Netflix with the launch of a low-cost plug-in stick giving access to movies and sport on any TV.
The broadcaster will also roll out a broadband service for its channels, meaning customers will no longer need a satellite dish. This “major development” will kick off in Italy followed by Austria and then all its key markets.
The FTSE 100 company is aiming to direct more investment into original dramas and spend less on second tier sports, with the resale of dramas to other broadcasters helping to finance production costs and enabling Sky to take on more ambitious projects.
Tin Star and Riviera were the most popular original drama series in the UK, where Sky added 180,000 customers as it grew half-year revenue by 4 per cent to £4.43billion and pre-tax earnings by 16 per cent to £973million.
The number of customers leaving – the so-called churn rate – fell from 11.6 per cent at the end of 2016 to 11.1 per cent.
Group pre-tax profit was up 28 per cent to £483million on 5 per cent higher revenue of £6.7billion as overall customer numbers increased by 365,000 to 22.9 million.
Sky chief executive, Jeremy Darroch, said: “This performance reflects the investment choices we have made in recent years, allowing us to more than offset the pressure on consumer spending across Europe, as more customers continue to choose Sky for more of their services.
“We expect the consumer environment to remain challenging. However we remain confident in our strategy and our ability to executive our plans.”
He added: “We have an exceptional line-up of acquired series, and when you add to that our own Sky Originals, it puts us in what I think is the strongest content position we’ve ever had.”
Sky is the subject of an £11.7bilion takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. The Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally found that the bid was not in the public interest as it would give him too much control over UK news media.
Sky shares rose 12½p to 1036p.