Sky set for record figures amid bidding war
SKY is set to unveil record results this week, highlighting why Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox and Comcast, the owner of Universal Studios, are fighting it out for the £26 billion broadcaster.
Analysts at investment bank UBS have tipped the firm to reveal revenues of £13.6 billion in the year ended June, up 5 per cent, from £12.9 billion.
Operating profits will recover from a small fall last year – when Sky splashed out on Premier League TV rights – to rise 8 per cent to a record £1.58 billion, UBS predicts.
It expects that to surge to £2.5 billion by 2022.
Sky, whose shows include new drama Sharp Objects starring Oscar nominee Amy Adams, is the prize in a complex tug of war. Murdoch’s Fox has been trying to buy the whole of Sky for some time and earlier this month increased its offer to £24.5 billion.
Disney has made a $71 billion offer for Fox and could end up as the owner of Sky via that deal. For its part, Comcast had launched a rival offer for Fox but decided last week to back off and focus on an attempt to take over Sky.
Separately, ITV is to reveal an upturn in TV advertising thanks to England’s long run in the World Cup and the return of reality show Love Island.
Its first-half results will be announced alongside a plan by new chief executive Dame Carolyn McCall to turn around the company which is battling poor advertising revenues and the rise of Netflix.
Sources said the blueprint of Dame Carolyn – who joined from easyJet – would be more ‘evolution than revolution’.