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UPDATE - Sky impresses ahead of Premier League rights auction

Last updated: 00:41 05 Feb 2015 AEDT, First published: 01:41 05 Feb 2015 AEDT

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Sky's half year results impressed ahead of a crucial auction of live Premier League football broadcasting rights.

Shares in the firm spent the whole of Wednesday at the top of the FTSE leader board, as the media group reported strong demand for pay-TV in the UK and Ireland and record customer growth in Germany.

Fresh from the tie-up of Britain's BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, the company added 204,000 new customers in the UK and Ireland in the six months to 31 December, its highest growth in nine years.

It also saw record growth in Germany and Austria with 214,000 new customers while it added 30,000 new customers in Italy, the highest growth in 12 quarters.

The figures contributed to a 16% rise in first-half adjusted operating profit (£675mln) - its maiden result as a European pay-TV group.

This week Sky scooped exclusive UK and Ireland rights this week for The Open Championship – ending the BBC’s 60 year live coverage of the golfing event. Football Premier League bids are due this week.

Today, chief executive Jeremy Darroch was tight lipped on Sky’s likely bid for the next three seasons of live Premier League coverage.

The bidding process means it will go head to head with rivals BT and Virgin Media.

“I am not going to speculate on the process," Darroch said.

“The Premier League is important to us but the business is now so much more than that. We are well-prepared for the auction and have our strategy in place.”

Virgin Media last week applied to block the auction, calling for at least some rights to be sold on a non-exclusive basis, so matches are shown by more than one broadcaster.

But media watchdog Ofcom rejected the cable operator's attempts to halt the process.

Meanwhile, Sky recently teamed up with O2’s current owner Telefonica to launch its own mobile network.

The multi-year deal will make Sky the third 'quad-play' provider in the UK, where it also competes with BT and Virgin Media by offering broadband, mobile, TV and landline stakes.

The group sold a majority stake in its bookie business Sky Bet at the end of last year to CVC Capital Partners for around £600mln.

Today Sky said the deal is on track and remains scheduled to close in the third quarter, pending regulatory approval.

Shares added 2% to reach 962p.

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