Sky says it added more than 200,000 new customers in the UK and Ireland in the final six months of 2014, its biggest gain in almost a decade.
The figure includes customers joining Sky’s streaming and download services NOW TV as well as new subscribers to its traditional satellite service.
The company, which last year bought Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, says it also saw good growth outside the UK, with 214,000 new customers in Germany and Austria and 30,000 new customers in Italy.
Sky says customer growth was matched by a reduction in ‘churn’ – the number of customers moving to rival providers.
It says continued investment in content, such as its new drama Fortitude and the UK and Irish rights to The Open Championship which it won yesterday, will help deliver future growth.
Chief Executive, Jeremy Darroch, said: “The strength of our performance in the UK and Ireland shows that our approach to segmenting the market with the complementary Sky and NOW TV brands is working.
“Across the board, customers are responding to our investment in more high-quality TV and innovative new services. This has resulted in the highest customer growth in nine years, the highest total product growth in four years and the lowest churn in a decade.”
