Sky eyeing possible further European expansion - CEO

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pay-TV group Sky will look at the possibility of expanding into other European markets either through its main platform or its online proposition, Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said on Thursday. The group, formed from the combination of Britain's BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, currently serves 21 million customers in Britain, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. It is set to launch a mobile service in 2016 through a partnership with Telefonica's O2 to better compete with traditional rivals BT and Virgin Media and so-called Over The Top or online players such as Netflix. "Our focus very much now is in Europe, having bedded down the Skys, the increasing question for us will be where we go to next?" Darroch told the Web Summit conference in Dublin when asked if Sky might move into other European markets or the United States. "Either with our Over The Top platform or potentially our other platform, there will be other markets we will want to go into. And then as I look at Sky relative to other providers across the world, we offer a pretty good service. So we'll be open-minded over time on some of the things we can do." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Jason Neely)