BENGALURU: London, UK headquartered pan-European satellite broadcasting, on-demand Internet streaming media, broadband and telephone services company Sky reported 4.7 per cent broad based total adjusted revenue growth for the year ended 30 June, 2015 (FY-2015) at ?11,2083 million as compared to the ?10,776 million in the previous year (FY-2014). Subscription is the biggest contributor to Sky’s revenue. The group’s revenue growth in the current year was led by a 4.6 per cent increment in adjusted subscription revenue at ?9697 million (85.9 per cent of total revenue) as compared to the ?9272 million (86 per cent of total revenue) in FY-2014.
Across its five territories (UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy), the group reported 973,000 new customer additions in FY-2015, 45 per cent more than previous year, and 158,000 new customers in Q4-2015. Subscription revenue growth was underpinned by excellent customer growth across the group and strong product growth of 4.6 million (829,000 in Q4-2015), with the largest proportion of revenue growth continuing to be delivered through the UK where revenues were up over ?300 million. Alongside this, the group’s best year of customer growth in Germany drove a 10 per cent increase in subscription revenues, whilst Italy held total customers and revenue flat.
Other segments
Sky’s advertising revenue in FY-2015 grew 3.8 per cent to ?716 million (6.3 per cent of total revenue) as compared to the ?690 million (6.4 per cent of total revenue) in FY-2014. Sky attributes growth in advertising revenues with Germany delivering growth of 26 per cent through higher sellout rates and increased inventory around Bundesliga. Advertising revenues in the UK grew strongly, up five per cent, due to the benefit of incremental AdSmart revenues combined with Sky Media increasing their share of net advertising revenue by almost 170 basis points, whilst advertising revenue was down in Italy as we lapped the €27 million benefit of the FIFA World Cup revenues in Q4 last year.
Transactional revenue increased 21.8 per cent to ?173 million (1.8 per cent of total revenue) in FY-2015 as compared to the ?142 million (1.3 per cent of total revenue) in the previous fiscal. Sky says that it benefited from the success of its Buy and Keep service, which surpassed weekly revenue of ?1 million in Q4-2015, and NOW TV transactions, which totaled almost 1.5 million over the past twelve months.
Sky’s wholesale and syndication revenue in the current year increased 5 per cent to ?550 million (4.9 per cent of total revenue) as compared to the ?524 million (5 per cent of total revenue) in FY-2014. Sky says that growth was largely driven by continued growth in the UK where revenues were up 19 per cent as success on screen led to more favourable terms for our channels with wholesale partners. Alongside this, revenues were strong through the distribution of our programming internationally and the first time consolidation of Znak&Jones and Love Productions. In Italy, underlying wholesale revenues were broadly flat year on year (excluding the benefit in the prior year from Champions League resale revenues), whilst revenues in Germany were slightly down following the successful migration of former Deutsche Telekom wholesale customers to a retail relationship in the prior year.
Other revenue was almost flat (declined fractionally) to ?147 million (1.3 per cent of total revenue) as compared to the ?148 million (1.37 per cent of total revenue) in the previous year.
Adjusted profit before tax increased 5.9 per cent to ?1196 million as compared to ?1129 million in FY-2014. Adjusted EPS declined 1.9 per cent to 56p as compared to the 57.1p in the previous year
