Sky Italia profit more than doubles
January 9, 2019
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italian pay-TV broadcaster Sky Italia closed the financial year to June 30th 2018 with a 3.8 per cent increase in revenues on the same period in 2017, to €2.99 billlion.
In the same period, profits rose from €41.6 million to almost €100 million, according to data reported by daily Italia Oggi.
Advertising revenues grew 5.1 per cent to €245 million, while revenues from content sales fell to €60.1 million, from €115.5 million the previous year (due to the re-ale of the TV rights for the Rio Olympics to RAI).
Thanks to new contracts for the transmission of Serie A football matches and agreements with telecom partners, “other” revenues rose 47.2 per cent, to €169.5 million.
Although Sky Italia paid €1.43 billion in TV rights (-3.6 per cent), the general level of costs remained stable, allowing it to close 2018 with a positive result of €138 million, a significant improvement on the €57.2 million in 2017.
The number of subscribers increased to 4.8 million, earning Sky Italia €2.44 billion.
Nevertheless, the group’s accounts for the financial year 2019 could be significantly impacted by commitments for the acquisition of sports TV rights, worth €4.44 billion. The costs for the purchase of Mediaset’s R2 technological platform are also likely to affect the current year’s balance sheet.
Sky Italia continues to be one of the largest investors in Italy, spending €185.1 million in 2018.