Sky News owner reports 7% rise in first-quarter sales

The entertainment and communications provider which owns Sky News has reported a solid start to its financial year with a 7% rise in revenue across its European operations.

Announcing a first-quarter trading update to the City, Sky plc (LSE: BSY.L - news) said group revenue‎ had increased to £3.15bn in the three months to the end of September.

The company, which provides pay-television, broadband and telephony services in markets including the UK, ‎Germany and Italy, said it had added more than 100,000 customers during the quarter.

Like-for-like revenue was up 5% - which excluded a one-off gain from the sale of the Italian broadcast rights to the ‎Rio Olympics - with operating costs trimmed by 2%.

In its home UK market, Sky said consumption of films had risen significantly after the rebranding of its movie offering as Sky Cinema, while it had also seen the launch of Sky Ticket, a streaming service, in Germany, and its Ultra HD proposition in four of its markets.

On a constant currency basis,‎ revenues in Germany and Austria were up 9% and in Italy by 13%.

Revenues in the early part of the quarter were impacted by major free-to-air events such as the Euro 2016 football tournament and the Olympic Games but Jeremy Darroch, Sky's chief executive, said he was "pleased" with the start to the financial year.

"We are on track financially in a year of investment on screen," he said.

"We are bringing customers the very best TV with more of the biggest Premier League matches, Europe's best box-set service and more new and exclusive original drama.

"We are already seeing the benefit with good growth in revenues, more new customers joining us and existing customers consuming more."