Sky Italia boosts content, technology investments
October 30, 2017
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Sky Italia is planning to boost investments in new content and state-of-the-art technologies to continue to grow, earmarking around €1.4 billion per year.
Speaking to Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore, CEO Andrea Zappia said that profitability has started to grow again over the last two years, thanks to efficient cost management and the search for new areas in order to diversify growth, especially advertising.
Subscriptions (€2.5 billion) account for the majority of Sky Italia’s turnover (€2.9 billion), while the rest comes from advertising revenue.
Following the successful development of the free-to-air offer on DTT with the TV8 and Cielo channels, according to Zappia, new opportunities now lie in streaming TV, Internet and agreements with telecom operators to distribute content.
He added that Sky Italia is exploring the world of OTT with NOW TV, but also wants to develop partnerships with Vodafone, TIM, Fastweb and Wind.
The pay-TV operator has relaunched its all-news channel Sky TG24 that will now be based on a multi-platform system, with more detailed background information that is integrated on the various distribution channels – TV, internet and mobile phone.
Zappia confirmed that Sky Italia will take part in the auction for the TV rights to Italy’s Serie A for the period 2018-2021, scheduled to take place by the end of 2017.