Sky will report its Q3 numbers next Tuesday on April 21st, and the market is expecting 9-month revenues growing by some 4.9 per cent (to £8.44 billion).

But the challenges ahead are not to be ignored, suggests a note from investment bankers Jefferies on April 17th. Sky UK has just announced steep price hikes for most of its subscription bundles.

The bank says it expects Germany to do well, adding 100,000 net subs for the quarter (although Q2 saw 204,000 added) and ahead of last year’s 90,000. But the bank is not expecting much in the way of growth from Sky’s Italian operation and there remain challenges to Italy from aggressive marketing from rival Mediaset.

On the Italian upside there are possible benefits from a deal announced yesterday with Telecom Italia which launched a quad-play service with Sky Italia. “We are convinced that this strategic deal is an important driver for the development of the new ultra broadband networks,” said Marco Patuano, Telecom Italia’s CEO, in a company statement.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
2. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
3. Optimism under threat at SES
4. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
5. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
6. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
7. IRIS2 already in trouble?
8. Intelsat contemplates next steps
9. SpaceX: 2.7m customers and $180bn value

Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Pay TV, Results