Sky's highest customer growth in the U.K. in "nearly a decade" helped the satellite broadcaster post a 16% rise in adjusted operating profit in its first results since its £5B acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDIAN. The pay-TV company, which now has a customer base of "nearly 25 million across Europe," reported first-half adjusted operating profits of £675M ($1.02B) in the six months to the end of December, ahead of forecasts of £644M ($980M). Sky, which captured exclusive live rights to the Open Championship for the first time on Tuesday and will "table its bid for live Premier League football rights on Friday," added another 204,000 domestic customers in the final three months of '14, its "strongest growth in nine years." Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch refused to speculate on the "imminent auction of live Premier League
rights." Sky paid £2.3B for 116 live matches in the most recent auction,
with BT paying £738M for 38 games a season. Sky is expected to "retain the majority of rights, but the cost may soar by up to 40%, according to analysts." Darroch: "We are well prepared for the auction, we have a clear sense of what
makes sense for our business and what we will pursue" (GUARDIAN, 2/4). In London, Nic Fildes reported Sky said that revenue in the six months to Dec. 31 increased 5% to
£5.6B, while pre-tax profit more than doubled to £1.2B from
£507M. The results were adjusted to "reflect the takeover of Sky's
sister companies in Germany and Italy which was completed last year" (LONDON TIMES, 2/4). Also in London, Henry Mance reported Sky is "facing challenges across Europe from streaming competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, which offer low-price TV subscriptions." Numis analyst Paul Richards said that Sky had delivered "a robust operating performance across its three geographies and an encouraging financial performance" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 2/4).
