BSkyB weathering tough conditions

BSkyB ended September with 10.4 million customers after connecting 77,000 new homes during the quarter. TV growth stalled with 26,000 net additions, while the remaining 51,000 new customers took broadband or telephony services.

The operator managed to increase revenue growth by 9% to £1.66 billion (€1.9 billion) in the quarter despite CEO Jeremy Darroch describing market conditions as “tough”.

“We continue to deliver strong financial results and good growth in customers and products. In tough market conditions, our move to more broadly based growth and multiple products is serving us well,” said Darroch. “New customers are choosing Sky over other providers, existing customers are taking more from us and our financial performance is accelerating, with another quarter of double-digit growth in operating profits, EPS and cash flow.”
Sky continued to upsell its value-add services, with the number of HD customers increasing by 103,000 during the quarter to 3.9 million. Multiroom customers numbered 2.3 million at the end of September, up 45,000 on the previous quarter.

Sky said its multiscreen service Sky Go, which launched in July, has attracted over 1.6 million unique users. The service offers live and on-demand TV on PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and the Xbox at no additional cost to Sky subscribers.
Sky’s ARPU was up £25 year-on-year during the quarter to £535. Adjusted EBITDA was up 14% to £381 million.