Sky generates €751m in revenues from Irish subscription services

Sky’s pay TV, broadband and telephone subscription operations here generated revenues of €751 million in the 18 months to last December.

That is according to accounts filed by a UK-based Sky entity, Sky Subscribers Services Ltd, which breaks out the revenues recorded by Sky's Irish subscription business.

The accounts for the UK company show that “Irish branch revenues” increased by 60 per cent from £421.64 million (€471.12 million) in the previous reporting period.

The figures are skewed as the reporting period is for the 18 months to the end of last December following a prior 12 month period to the end of June 2018.

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The broadcaster and telecommunications company changed its reporting period following Comcast’s purchase of the Sky business in order to align with its new owners.

On a year on year basis, Sky’s Irish branch revenues increased by a more modest 6.5 per cent last year with the pro-rata 12 months revenues totalling £448.7 million (€500 million).

Biggest driver

While the changing reporting period was by the far the biggest driver, Sky Ireland’s revenues were boosted by the launch of the broadcaster’s Sports Extra in 2019 and growth from existing businesses, particularly its streaming service Now TV.

Nielsen estimates that Sky has 700,000 pay TV subscribers here.

On the growth of Sky's broadband and telephone subscription service, a spokeswoman for Sky Ireland said: "Since Sky Broadband's launch in 2013, we have brought on over 200,000 new broadband customers which we are of course very proud of.

“Intense competition at the retail level has meant the market is a challenging one though.”

She added: "We are committed to working with National Broadband Ireland to connect more and more homes in rural Ireland and overall our broadband propositions are well received alongside our TV and talk products."

Sky employs just under 1,000 people in Ireland, across a range of functions including sales, marketing, finance, retail, support and customer service.