Sky makes inroads with on-demand and online services

Connected TV and OTT services helped BSkyB to report strong first quarter results.

The UK pay TV operator said the number of unique users of its multiscreen service Sky Go reached a high of 2.8 million in the three months ending September 30, up 75% year-on-year. Sky’s connected TV service, Sky Plus, which allows users to download movies and TV series to their set-top box, has been activated by around 1.8 million households by connecting their Sky Plus HD box to the internet. On average, users are downloading over three on-demand titles each week, Sky said.

During the quarter, Sky added 48,000 new customers, giving a it a total subscriber base of 48,000. The operator added 125,000 HD customers to end the quarter with a total of 4.5 million, while multiroom subscriber numbers were up 21,000 to 2.4 million. With more customers taking more services, Sky has seen ARPU increase to £550 (€425) from £535 a year earlier.

Broadband and telephony numbers were also up in the quarter and around a third of all subscribers now take a triple-play package.

Sky’s first quarter revenue was up 4% year-on-year to £1.7 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3% to £392 million.

CEO Jeremy Darroch said, “We have made a strong start to the year, delivering another good quarterly performance and continuing to position the business for the long term. Our investment in high quality content and innovative services has delivered excellent levels of loyalty and generated good growth in customers and products. At the same time, we continue to drive improvements in efficiency, reliability and customer service throughout our operations. This approach continues to generate strong financial results with good growth in revenues and earnings. Looking forward, whilst we continue to see a challenging consumer environment in the UK and Ireland, we are well positioned to execute our plans for the year.”