Sky creates 1,000 new jobs ahead of busy Q4

Sky has announced the creation of 1,000 new jobs in the UK, including the creation of a new customer contact centre in Leeds.

This announcement will see the company’s total employee base in the UK and Ireland reach 25,000.

Half of the new hires will be engineers employed to install Sky Q into “thousands of homes” over the coming months.

Sky already employs 3,500 engineers across the UK, meaning the company is expanding its engineer base by a little over 14%.

Speaking on Comcast’s most recent earnings call,Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch said that the room for growth, with lower penetration in Europe than in the US meaning that Q4 growth is a realistic expectation. He said: “The idea of upgrading your TV for Christmas to pay TV to Sky remains strong for us. It’s not as acute as it used to be… but it remains important.”

Darroch said that Sky Q, the pay TV operator’s premium offering, currently accounts for 40% of the company’s business and that he anticipates this percentage to get “a lot higher”.

The remainder of the new jobs are customer service roles at Sky’s new contact centre at No 1 Leeds in the city centre.

These customer service agents will support customers across Sky’s products and services via call, text, chat on the MySky app, and Facebook Messenger.

Sky is already one of Leeds’ biggest employers, with 1,000 people already working for the company in the city. Most of these staff currently work on Sky’s digital and technical capability out of Sky@Leeds Dock.

Stephen van Rooyen, CEO, UK & Ireland, Sky said: “Our customers love viewing all their favourite shows in one place with Sky Q, so it’s great that 500 new Sky engineers will be hitting the roads right across the UK this winter to meet growing customer demand.

“Together with our expanded team in Leeds, these 1,000 new employees are a real testament to Sky’s commitment to customer service and investment to create a diverse workforce right across the UK.”