Sky Deutschland preliminary Q2 2014/15 results
Now serving over 4 million customers; strongest growth ever


Key metrics

  • Total subscribers: 4,123,000, up 456,000 in the last 12 months - new record
  • Net growth: 214,000 in the quarter (up 55% yoy) - new record
  • Churn rate: 12 month rolling down to 8.2% - new record
  • Sky Premium HD customers: 2,433,000, up 407,000 yoy
  • Sky+ customers: 1,994,000, up 514,000 yoy
  • Sky Go customer sessions: 36.8m, up 87% yoy 
  • Q2 revenues: €451m, up €36m yoy
  • Q2 EBITDA: €3.5m, up €41m yoy



Highlights

  • Sky Go: now on selected Android smartphones and tablets 
  • Sky On Demand: Sky's comprehensive on-demand offering available via Sky+
  • Sky Online: a new way to enjoy Sky, including dedicated Sky Online TV Box 
  • Sky Info: a new channel about the entire world of Sky
  • 2015 IHF Handball World Championships: live and exclusive on Sky
  • UEFA Europa League: live rights secured until 2018 
  • Sky Thrones HD: the first channel dedicated to a single series in Europe
  • Only on Sky - all 2015 Academy Award top nominees and Golden Globe winners
  • Multiple customer service awards received
  • Sky German Holdings: voluntary takeover offer completed; shareholding at 95.8% as at 7 Jan.



Brian Sullivan, CEO of Sky Deutschland:  "With now over four million subscribers, we've expanded to a level that many believed would have never been possible and once again demonstrated that customers increasingly appreciate exclusive high-quality programmes, exciting innovations and great customer service. We've launched further ground-breaking product innovations such as Sky Online, Sky On Demand, as well as Sky Go on Android, extended agreements with important rights holders, and received various awards for outstanding service. Our customers recognised this with the highest loyalty level ever. Record customer growth in the past quarter reinforces the strong underlying trends we've seen within the business, which we intend to continue supporting during the second half of this fiscal year." 

Unterföhring, 4 February 2015 - In the second quarter of the 2014/15 financial year, Sky Deutschland delivered new record customer growth. The number of direct subscribers grew by 214,000 (Q2 2013/14: 138,000), surpassing the four million mark to reach a total of 4,123,000 (Q2 2013/14: 3,667,000). Gross additions were at a high of 284,000 (Q2 2013/14: 244,000), reflecting the increasing underlying demand for Sky's products as well as a strong marketing presence. Supported by the continued take-up of two year contracts, which represented 79% of new subscriptions in Q2 2014/15, customer loyalty improved significantly with the 12-month rolling churn rate dropping to 8.2% (Q2 2013/14: 11.2%) - the lowest level in the company's history.

Sky Premium HD continued to expand with the number of customers, inclusive of HD free-visions, growing by 122,000 in the quarter to 2,433,000 (Q2 2013/14: 2,025,000). As a result, 59% of all customers now enjoy the outstanding quality of Sky's market leading HD offering (Q2 2013/14: 55%), which today includes up to 94 channels.

Sky+ continued its strong growth with the number of customers increasing by 208,000 in the quarter to 1,994,000 (Q2 2013/14: 1,480,000). Almost half of all Sky subscribers (48%) now benefit from the convenience and flexibility of the award-winning Sky+ receiver (Q2 2013/14: 40%).

A total of 479,000 customers (Q2 2013/14: 429,000) subscribed to the Sky Zweitkarte (Second Smartcard), demonstrating that a growing number of customers want to enjoy Sky's outstanding entertainment line-up simultaneously on multiple TV sets in their home.

Altogether Sky Deutschland grew its total number of subscription products, which include direct subscriptions, Sky Premium HD, Snap by Sky, Sky Online, and the Second Smartcard, by 15% in Q2 2014/15 to 6,794,000 (Q2 2013/14: 5,895,000).

Sky Go, Germany and Austria's leading online TV service, also saw significant growth. Over the course of Q2 2014/15, all Sky Go key metrics achieved a new record level. The number of customer sessions grew by 87% year-on-year to 36.8 million, demonstrating that an ever increasing number of customers want to enjoy great TV entertainment beyond the home TV screen.

Strong financial performance
In Q2 2014/15, total revenues grew by 9% to €451 million (Q2 2013/14: €414 million). Subscription revenues were the key driver, up 9% to €407 million (Q2 2013/14: €373 million), with an average revenue per user (ARPU) of €33.76 (Q2 2013/14: €34.56). Marketing and sales expenses associated with the strong quarterly subscriber growth as well as the planned step-up in enhanced Bundesliga rights were more than offset by a change in estimates in programming costs which better reflect the non-linear usage across Sky's new on-demand services. As a result, total costs excluding depreciation decreased by 1% and amounted to €447 million (Q2 2013/14: €451 million). EBITDA for Q2 2014/15 amounted to €3.5 million (Q2 2013/14: negative €37.0 million), which is an improvement of €40.5 million year-on-year. Net income was at negative €37.1 million (Q2 2013/14: negative €80.4 million).

Sky Go now available for Android
Sky Go, the leading online TV service in Germany and Austria, has been made available on Android, starting with the most popular smartphones and tablets. Only Sky Go enables sport fans to watch all matches of their favourite teams across all competitions and many more top sports live and exclusive. The extensive content also includes blockbusters up to twelve months before free TV or any other online TV service, as well as first run series directly after their US start. The service is rounded out by additional entire series box sets, numerous top-quality documentaries, classic movies and an extensive offering for kids. With Sky Go, customers also gain direct access to the entire programming catalogue from Snap - the online video service from Sky.

Sky On Demand: Sky's entire on-demand offering available via Sky+
To make the outstanding Sky on-demand offering, including all content from Sky Go and Snap, available on the big TV, Sky began a major expansion of the Sky Anytime on-demand catalogue, starting with satellite customers in December 2014. Through their Sky+ HD receiver and a simple internet connection, customers are enabled to watch a growing part of Sky's on-demand portfolio directly via the receiver - just with the push of a button on their remote control. In all, it means that customers with the expanded Sky Anytime are now able to experience up to six times as much content through their Sky+. Over this year, the Sky Anytime expansion will also become available for cable customers enabling them to access more of Sky's outstanding on-demand offering.

Sky Online: A new way to enjoy Sky, including dedicated Sky Online TV Box
Sky Online is a new, easy and flexible way with a monthly contract duration to get instant access to the world of Sky. It was soft-launched in November 2014 with two packages, Sky Online Starter and Sky Online Film, as well as a Supersport Day Ticket for those with either one of these packages. The introduction of the Sky Online TV Box in December added a flexible, user-friendly and affordable option to stream Sky's premium content directly on TV screens.

The ever increasing on-demand usage across all Sky services - Sky+/Sky Anytime, Sky Go, Sky On Demand and Sky Online - is illustrated by the recent viewership figures of the movie "Frozen". Since August 2014 it has been viewed on-demand more than half a million times. This is in addition to the linear viewership figures of around one million viewers, leading to a total of over 1.5 million.

UEFA Europa League live on Sky Deutschland until 2018
Sky Deutschland has extended the live broadcasting rights for the UEFA Europa League from the 2015/16 season up to the end of the 2017/18 season. In combination with the previously renewed rights for the UEFA Champions League, Sky continues to be the only place to show all matches of the German and Austrian teams across all platforms including satellite and cable, as well as internet, IPTV and mobile in Germany and Austria. This deal also includes a significant increase in exclusivity for customers in Austria.

2015 IHF Handball World Championships - live and exclusive
In late December 2014 Sky Deutschland secured the exclusive live broadcasting rights for the IHF Handball World Championships and showed all matches of the German and Austrian national teams which took place in January/February 2015 in Qatar. The world cup achieved excellent ratings with up to 686,000 viewers for the quarter finals. After securing the exclusive long-term live rights for the VELUX EHF Champions League in September, the recent deal underlines Sky's commitment to handball.

The best year for series fans ever
There is no better place for true series fans than Sky. In calendar year 2014, Sky Deutschland delivered 127 series premieres, including over 1,600 episodes, and 2015 will be even bigger with the best in high-quality series - first and only on Sky. The year kicked off with the exclusive broadcast of the third and final season of "The Newsroom", followed by "Fortitude", a highly anticipated new drama produced by Sky in the UK. It is the first Sky original production which has been launched simultaneously across all the five Sky markets - Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland and Italy. And there is much more to come: In February "The Walking Dead" will premiere with brand new and exclusive episodes, simultaneously with the U.S. All episodes of the previous five seasons will be available on-demand on Sky. Also in February the seventh and final season of "True Blood" starts, with all 80 episodes also accessible on-demand. Shortly thereafter, another cult series, "The Strain", launches on Sky Atlantic HD.

Season 3 of the Kevin Spacey political drama "House of Cards" has its exclusive premiere with Sky in Germany and Austria. In February, Sky will deliver all 13 episodes simultaneously to the U.S. as part of a worldwide event. This will be followed two weeks later with the German language versions of the series on Sky Atlantic HD.

Sky Deutschland's first international coproduction, "100 Code", is set to premiere in March. The twelve part series will take the cult Scandi-crime genre to a new level. Another highlight will be the second season of HBO's "True Detective", which is considered a masterpiece of the art of storytelling. It will premiere later in the year exclusively on Sky Atlantic HD for Germany and Austria.

The TV series event of the year takes place in April: Season 5 of HBO's "Game of Thrones", which will premiere in Germany and Austria simultaneously to the US on Sky Go, Sky Anytime and Sky Online. And along with the brand new season, every episode of all previous seasons will be available on-demand exclusively for Sky subscribers.

Sky Thrones HD: the first channel dedicated to a single series in Europe
Shortly before the start of the fifth season of "Game of Thrones" in April, Sky Deutschland will launch Sky Thrones HD, the first channel in Europe which is dedicated to a single series. The channel will show all episodes of the previous four seasons, with studio productions explaining the story, settings and characters, and be on air for two weeks.

Only at Sky - all 2015 Academy Award top nominees and Golden Globe winners 
As the true home for all film fans, Sky once again is the only broadcaster to present all of the year's Oscar nominees as well as all of the year's Golden Globe winners in the top categories - first and exclusively, and up to 18 months before free TV and/or other online subscription services. Among them are "Boyhood", "Birdman", "The Imitation Game", "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "Gone Girl", and "The Theory of Everything".

Sky Star Wars HD - seasonal programming highlight
For fans of the Star Wars saga in Germany and Austria, Sky offered a special Christmas gift: From 1 to 14 December 2014 the channel Sky Hits became Sky Star Wars HD, presenting all six Star Wars films around the clock. This did not only create a TV and internet phenomenon, but also increased the audience share compared to the same period last year. Overall, more than 3 million people watched the channel; on Facebook, the self-produced Star Wars clips reached around 33 million people in less than two weeks.

Sky Info - a channel about the entire world of Sky
The Sky Info channel was launched in November to present an overview of Sky's comprehensive programming. It supports viewers in discovering the enormous range that Sky offers. The channel can be received for free via satellite for both Sky customers as well as anyone without a Sky subscription.

Sky Sport News HD with new ratings record
Sky Sport News HD, Germany and Austria's only 24/7 sport news channel, achieved a new single-day ratings record on 12 January with 740,000 viewers tuning in to the channel. On average 380,000 viewers watched Sky Sport News HD every day in the recent quarter. This shows the channel's strong progress over the three years since its launch.

Multiple customer service awards
After Sky's telephone-based customer service was recognised by the TÜV in August, Sky's installation service was awarded the best grade from that organisation in December. In addition, the Sky hotline was the test winner among TV and video-on-demand providers in the area of service quality by the IT magazine CHIP and Statista. In October 2014, Sky was selected for a third time in a row as the "Service Champion" among premium TV providers.

Completion of tender offer by Sky German Holdings
Sky German Holdings GmbH, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Sky plc, completed its voluntary takeover offer on 12 November. According to a notification by Sky plc on 7 January, the voting rights of Sky German Holdings GmbH in Sky Deutschland AG amounted to 95.80% on this day. As a consequence of a free-float below 10%, Sky Deutschland was removed from the MDAX index in December. 


Contact for media:
Dr. Jörg E. Allgäuer
Vice President Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 89/99 58-63 77
joerg.allgaeuer@sky.de

Contakt for investors and analysts:
Christine Scheil
Senior Vice President Investor Relations
Tel.: +49 89/99 58-10 10
christine.scheil@sky.de

About Sky Deutschland:
Sky is the leading pay-TV provider in Germany and Austria with more than 4.1 million subscribers and annual revenues amounting to approximately 1.7 billion Euros. The program portfolio of Sky includes live sports, feature films, series, children's programs and documentaries. Sky has around 2,500 employees and is based in Unterföhring near Munich. The company is a part of Sky plc, Europe's leading entertainment group (Status: 31 Dec. 2014).



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