Sky Italia sees continued decline

21st Century Fox-owned Sky Italia saw a continued decline in its subscriber base in the quarter to June, dropping by 25,000 to 4.73 million.

For 21st Century Fox as a whole, direct-to-home TV generated quarterly segment OIBDA of US$146 million (€109 million) compared with the US$156 million reported in the same period a year ago. While the group saw a 16% increase in revenue, thanks to growth from Sky Deutschland, this was more than offset by higher sports programming costs including Sky Italia’s broadcast of the FIFA World Cup and Sky Deutschland’s exclusive broadcast of Bundesliga football.

21st Century Fox has removed Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland from its future guidance going forward as a result of its agreed deal to sell the assets to BSkyB.