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TV GIANT SKY, facing a possible takeover by Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, today announced a surge in subscribers, with cult series Game of Thrones to thank.
Sky’s subscriber base swelled by 160,000 new customers in the three months to late September, up 51% on a year earlier, it said in a results update.
Revenues grew 5% to £3.3 billion (€3.7 billion) over the same period.
Underlying profit, which strips out items such as tax and interest payments, jumped 11% to £582 million.
“We’ve had a strong start to our new financial year with good revenue growth and excellent profit growth,” said chief executive Jeremy Darroch.
He added: “Game of Thrones has become the most watched series ever on Sky.”
The London-listed group has exclusive rights to US broadcasting giant HBO’s television catalogue, which includes the current seventh season of the award-winning show.
Later, Sky will hold an annual general meeting at its London headquarters, where shareholders will vote on the re-election of Murdoch’s son James as chairman.
Some investor groups have expressed unease over him serving longer, in light of James being also chief executive of 21st Century Fox, which is seeking to buy the 61 percent of Sky it does not yet own.
There is unrest also over executive pay. Darroch’s total annual packet more than trebled to £16.3 million in Sky’s last financial year despite annual profits taking a knock from the escalating cost of broadcasting live Premier League football.
Takeover
Meanwhile the takeover of Sky is being held up by a UK investigation into the proposed deal worth £11.7 billion.
Regulators on Tuesday said the probe would assess Rupert Murdoch’s influence on Britain’s political landscape.
Overall, Britain’s Competitions and Markets Authority will assess the impact of the Murdoch family’s proposed deal on both broadcasting standards and media plurality.
The CMA will seek to prevent “any one media owner, or voice, having too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda”.
The regulator’s probe will scrutinise the ability of the Murdoch Family Trust (MFT) to “control or influence editorial and commercial decisions” at Sky News, a 24-hour news channel broadcast from London.
It will assess also the current state of plurality within the UK media, and the commitment to accuracy in newspapers controlled by the MFT’s News Corp division, including The Times and The Sun.
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Never seen an episode
@ed w: How grown adults like fantasy nonsense is beyond me too.
@ed w: haven’t witnessed a great show So… and its a great drama that has you on the edge of your seat so what if it a fantasy
@Fionan MacKenna: 100′s of millions can’t be wrong
@ed w: Give it a go. You won’t regret it.
@Stan:
Fantasy is an escape from reality, anything is possible, the only limitation is ones imagination.
I would much prefer to watch Game of Thrones than big brother. I’m not a reality tv fan.
Fantasy and science fiction would be my favorite genres, then action and paranormal *not horror*.
@Lily: Comedy and sitcoms good too. RTE make no worthy comedy. Only reasonable show was the savage eye. UK sitcoms way better than American Friends big bang etc shite.
@ed w: I have but not on Sky, the wonders of an Android Box
@Paul Furey: 100′s of millions can be very wrong but surely its down to individual choice and taste. I wouldn’t be the biggest fan of “GoT” but to diss adults for liking fantasy isn’t right either. It’s an escape route from reality. To each their own!
@Joseph Dempsey: Care to share how u presumably, stream shows?
@Stan: kodi and the pulse build is all you need to Google
@Stan: download Showbox apk online (not play store) it has everything Netflix has and everything it doesn’t..
Sky is a rip off. Why is there no cheap way of phoning from here? It’s free to the North and UK to phone them but here there 0818 numbers cost fortune.
@Stan: if you have sky broadband you can phone for free
@Stan: I don’t think sky is a rip off at all. If you can’t afford it, saorview is free
@Michael Geraghty: They would use you on the next ad to spin that about cost. Leo would recruit you to his spin team too.
@Stan: pal it’s simple. If you think it’s a rip off don’t buy it. Plenty of others. If you can’t afford it. Use saorview. It’s a really basic point I’m making and nothing whatsoever to do with politics. U need a hobby
I’d be more inclined to think the increase in subscription is due to SKY working out how to block their channels from illegal card sharing boxes earlier this year and IPTV being useless for live sport.
Give us back Fox News!!
@Tristan Rowntree: Too right. Narrative hegemony is so dangerous
@Tristan Rowntree: agreed i miss it, just got comedy central and Dave now tp watch.
@Tristan Rowntree: I’m sure the negotiations for fox are the sling through the journal comments section looking for inspiration for their next multi million euro decision.
Kodi all the way
Pity they didn’t film it here – but we moaned about Schelig….
same over and over again….harry potter with stubble
Love them or hate them, Sky are the kings when it comes to television, they’re streets ahead of everyone else. Their phone and broadband isn’t bad either, and in fairness they’ll bend over backwards to keep you as a customer.
Looks crap.
@purple rain: Prince was crap
@Paul Furey: who ?
Virgin being such a useless shower of *@%$#@¥ is why i switched
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