Sky PLC today reported a 7% increase in revenue in its 12-month earnings ending 30 June 2016.
The entertainment and communications company Sky reported £11.965bn profit compared to £11.221bn last year.
Adjusted operating profit grew as much as 12%, from £1.397bn in 2014/15 to £1.558bn in the 12 month period ending the 30 June 2016.
Earnings per share increased by 13% to 63.1p. The company could report on twelve years of consecutive growth in dividends to a current level of 33.5p.
Across this year the group added 808,000 new customers and sold 3.3 million new products.
CEO Jeremy Darroch, stated:
“it’s been another excellent year for Sky. We have broadened our business and expanded into new consumer segments, applying our proven strategy across the group.”
Revenues in Sky’s biggest market, the UK and Ireland passed £8bn this year due to the broadening of their services and especially the new premium service SkyQ.
The company has also expanded their TV offers available in its’ other big markets, Germany and Austria.
Costs grew 6% over the 12-month period due to increases in costs of airing the German Bundesliga and continued investment in programming to enhance further investment in original content and box sets. Sky did however offset some of these costs as it did not renew the Champions League as well as the Ryder Cup for the UK and Ireland.
For the coming twelve months, the group aims at a continued revenue growth rate of 5-7%. It will keep a continuing focus on cost efficiency, especially in eye of the upcoming approximate costs of £600million to renew its’ UK Premier League rights.
It is also looking to further enhance and expand its’ services across markets with new service launches across markets still to come this year. New launches will include Sky1 in Germany, Ultra HD services in both the UK and Germany and NOW TV Combo in the UK.
Darroch stated: “Our deep insights into the needs of customers, along with our investments in brilliant programmes and technology, strong relationships with our partners and, above all, our desire to embrace change means that we continue to better serve our customers, and grow our business. Our ambition is to be the best customer-led entertainment and communications company in the world, delivering long term benefits for all our shareholders.”
Share prices for Sky PLC dropped greatly in anticipation as well as in reflection of the UK’s Brexit vote, losing as much as 16.5% between the 9th and 27th of June. Since then they have however recovered to pre-Brexit levels. After release of full year earnings results, share prices jumped 6.71% in early morning trading to a high of 949.75.
At 2.30pm Sky PLC shares (LON: SKY) were trading at 911.00 (+2.65).