MIDDLESEX, UK--(Marketwired - Oct 17, 2013) -
BRITISH SKY BROADCASTING GROUP PLC
Unaudited results for the three months ended 30 September 2013
Adjusted results
_____________________________________________________________
Three months to 30 Sept 2013/14 2012/13 Variance
_____________________________________________________________
Revenue GBP1,843m GBP1,715m +7%
EBITDA GBP392m GBP392m +0%
Operating profit GBP285m GBP310m -8%
Earnings per share (basic) 13.0p 13.4p -3%
_____________________________________________________________
Strong growth across all products
* 800,000 new paid-for subscription products, growth up 50% year on
year
Sky Broadband surpasses 5 million customers
* 111,000 net new broadband customers added in the quarter, up 9%
year on year
* Triple play penetration of 36%, up 3 percentage points
Rapid growth in connected TV services
* Record growth in connected Sky+HD boxes, up 642,000 to 3.4 million
* Fourfold increase in On Demand usage
* 219,000 net additions to Sky Go Extra
Financial performance on track
* Revenue up 7% to GBP1,843 million
* Adjusted operating profit down 8% to GBP285 million
* Adjusted basic earnings per share down 3% to 13.0p
Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive, commented:"We have made a very good start
to the year. Strong growth across the
board drove a 7% increase in revenues and we added 50% more new
subscription products than last year as customers continued to respond
to the quality and value we offer. Adjusted operating profit was in
line with our expectations as we invest in new services and absorb
higher Premier League costs."We were particularly pleased with the
continued strong performance in
home communications. Quarterly growth in broadband was up on last year
taking us past the 5-million customer milestone. In all, 36% of
customers now choose to take all three of TV, broadband and telephony
from Sky, over half a million more than last year."On screen, we enjoyed a
fantastic summer of sport with the excitement
of the Ashes and the Lions tour followed by our best ever start to the
football season. Total viewing to our Sky Sports channels is up almost
15% on last year, including growth of over 40% in viewing through our
mobile TV service Sky Go."We are making excellent progress against the plan
we set out in July
to accelerate growth and returns from new services. The number of
connected Sky+HD boxes grew by almost 50,000 a week, faster than in any
previous quarter, and we are seeing an immediate increase in usage as
customers get connected. Weekly downloads through our On Demand service
grew fourfold in the quarter while the number of movie rentals through
Sky Store doubled on last year."While the consumer environment remains
challenging, we are well placed
as we execute a strong set of plans for the rest of the year."
Results highlights
Customer Metrics (unaudited)
As at As at Annual Quarterly Growth
30-Sep-13 30-Sep-12 Growth to 30-Sep-13
_______________________________________________________________________
Total products ('000s) 32,434 28,898 +3,536 +800
TV 10,459 10,308 +151 +37
HD 4,893 4,468 +425 +107
Multiroom 2,503 2,423 +80 +14
Sky Go Extra 385 - +385 +219
Broadband 5,017 4,103 +914 +111
Telephony 4,652 3,888 +764 +151
Line rental 4,525 3,708 +817 +161
Paid-for products per
retail customer 2.9 2.7
New connected TV
services ('000s)
Internet-connected 3,351 1,255 +2,096 +642
Sky+HD boxes
Sky Go unique users 3,291 2,768 +523 +34
Other metrics
Total Customers ('000s) 14,841 14,368 +473 +11
Retail Customers 11,224 10,654 +570 +71
Wholesale Customers(1) 3,617 3,714 -97 -60
ARPU (2) GBP559 GBP542 +GBP17
Triple-play 36% 33% +3%
Churn 11.0% 10.9% +0.1%
_______________________________________________________________________
An additional KPI summary table containing further detailed disclosure
may be found in Schedule 1.
Business Performance (3) (unaudited)
GBP'millions 3 months 3 months to
to 30-Sep-13 30-Sep-12 Movement
_____________________________________________________________________
Revenue 1,843 1,715 +7%
Adjusted EBITDA 392 392 +0%
Adjusted operating profit 285 310 -8%
% Adjusted operating profit
margin 15.5% 18.1% -260 bps
Adjusted basic earnings per
share (4) 13.0p 13.4p -3%
_____________________________________________________________________
(1) Wholesale customers taking at least one paid for Sky channel. The
customer numbers are as reported to us at August 2013.
(2) Quarterly annualised. Calculations have been restated to exclude
revenues earned from retailing the ESPN channel. Further details are
provided in Schedule 2.
(3) A reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted operating profit to
reported measures is set out in Appendix 2.
(4) Adjusted basic earnings per share is calculated from adjusted profit
for the period. A reconciliation of reported profit to adjusted profit
is set out in note 3 to the consolidated financial information.
SUMMARY OF OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
We have made a strong start to the year as customers respond positively
to the investments we're making to enhance our offering. Revenues for
the three months to 30 September 2013 were up 7%, fuelled by robust
growth across all products. Adjusted operating profit was down 8% and
adjusted basic earnings per share were down 3% to 13.0 pence,
reflecting the previously announced step-up in Premier League costs and
our investments to accelerate take-up of connected services.
Strong customer demand delivered an increase of 800,000 paid-for
subscription products over the three-month period, with quarterly
growth up 50% year on year. We saw good growth across all TV products,
adding 37,000 net new TV products and 107,000 new customers to HD. Sky
Go Extra, our paid-for mobile TV service, continued to grow strongly
with the addition of 219,000 new customers in the quarter, taking the
total base to 385,000.
Home communications performed particularly well with the addition of
111,000 new broadband customers, 9% more than the first quarter last
year and taking us past the 5-million mark. Telephony grew by 151,000
and line rental by 161,000 as we maintained our position as the UK's
favourite triple play provider. In all, 36% of our customer base now
take all three of TV, broadband and telephony from Sky, 519,000 more
than last year.
We closed the quarter with 11.2 million retail customers, growth of
71,000 in the quarter, almost 50% higher year on year.
ARPU continued to grow well, increasing by GBP17 to reach GBP559,
representing growth of 3% versus the prior year. The largest driver of
higher ARPU was the greater average number of products taken by our
customers. Our ARPU calculation for the period includes the customers
acquired from O2 and removes the impact of ESPN customers from this
period and the comparatives. For the detail of the adjustments please
refer to Schedule 2.
Content
The investment that we are making on screen is resonating strongly with
customers. Sky Sports subscribers grew well in the quarter and viewing
increased by almost 15%, reflecting the strength of the summer schedule
and a record start to the Premier League season. Audiences to the first
23 live Premier League games were up 20% on last year. Our own success,
together with that of our wholesale partners, means that over 14
million homes in Britain and Ireland actively choose to pay for Sky's
channels and content.
Connected TV services
Our plan to accelerate growth in new connected TV services has had an
immediate impact. A record 642,000 customers connected their Sky+HD
boxes to broadband in the quarter. As a result, the number of connected
homes reached 3.4 million, up from 1.3 million last year, making Sky
the UK's fastest-growing connected TV service.
We also expanded the range of content available to access on demand in
the quarter, adding six new channels to Catch Up TV, including
Universal and the Disney Channel, and over 25% more hours of
programming on TV Box Sets. Overall, the number of average weekly On
Demand downloads increased fourfold to over 6.5 million while the
number of movie rentals through Sky Store more than doubled to 2.1
million.
Meanwhile, more customers than ever are using our mobile TV service Sky
Go. Sky Sports viewing on Sky Go was up more than 40% on the same time
last year while viewing to Sky Movies on Sky Go increased by almost
50%.
Efficiency and Service
We continue to make good progress in our work to improve our operating
efficiency and service delivery. Our most reliable Sky+HD set-top box
is now in nearly 8 million homes, up almost 20% year on year. This
increased penetration helped reduce the number of service visits by 9%.
DETAILED FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
We delivered a good financial performance in what, as we outlined at
our full year results in July, will be a year of investment in the
customer proposition. We saw strong revenue growth of 7%, adjusted
operating profit was down 8% and adjusted basic earnings per share was
down 3%, in line with our expectations. This was a result of the
step-up in Premier League costs and our planned investments in
connected services.
Within these adjusted results for the quarter, before integration
costs, the consolidation of O2's consumer broadband and fixed line
telephony business ('O2') resulted in a net neutral impact to operating
profit, comprising GBP19 million of revenue and GBP19 million of
operating cost.
Unless otherwise stated, all figures and growth rates below exclude
adjusting items.
Revenue
Group revenue increased by 7% to GBP1,843 million (2013: GBP1,715
million) with good growth across the board.
Retail subscription revenue grew by 7% to GBP1,531 million (2013:
GBP1,4 28 million) reflecting continued strong product and customer
growth as well as the initial benefit of the increase in some of our
prices in September. Inclusion of revenue from former O2 broadband
customers broadly offset the loss of ESPN revenue as we ceased
retailing their sports channel on 31 July.
Wholesale revenue was up 4% to GBP96 million (2013: GBP92 million)
while advertising revenues grew 7% to GBP102 million (2013: GBP95
million), primarily due to a post-Olympics increase in the advertising
market.
Other revenues increased by 20% to GBP96 million (2013: GBP80 million)
largely due to good growth in Sky Bet revenues and a GBP4 million
increase in set-top box sales to Sky Italia to GBP20 million (2013:
GBP16 million).
Costs
Programming costs were up 6% at GBP622 million (2013: GBP589 million)
as we continued to invest in bringing Sky customers the very best TV.
This included a step-up in Premier League costs and continued
investment in original UK commissions. Under the new three-year Premier
League deal which came into effect this financial year, we pay a flat
amount of GBP760 million this year and for the two subsequent financial
years. The year on year increase of around GBP220 million does not
therefore recur in future periods.
Direct network costs were up 17% to GBP202 million (2013: GBP172
million) despite a 21% increase in the volume of home communications
products in the last 12 months and a 16% increase in unbundled
exchanges. In addition to having more customers on our cost effective
unbundled network, we continue to achieve efficiencies in our network
operating costs by negotiating fixed-price support contracts, in-
housing our transit and peering capability and reducing third party
visit costs to rectify network faults. We now have 3.5 million fully
unbundled customers, up 27% year on year, and our unbundled network
serves 88% of UK homes.
Marketing costs were up GBP55 million to GBP320 million (2013: GBP265
million) driven by a good customer response to our investment in
connected services which was reflected in our strong product growth,
and our above-the-line campaigns during the quarter. Subscriber
management costs were up GBP19 million to GBP175 million (2013: GBP156
million) due to a combination of strong customer and product growth and
incremental resource associated with the launch of NOW TV.
Depreciation grew by GBP25 million to GBP107 million. The increase
reflects the number of large capital projects that went live in the
quarter which will normalise through the year; the impact of continued
strong communications growth through increased depreciation of
capitalised connection fees; the unbundling of a further 121 BT
exchanges in the previous quarter; and the depreciation of exchange
equipment acquired from O2.
Earnings
Adjusted profit before tax was GBP263 million (2013: GBP291 million)
and included the Group's share of joint ventures' and associates'
profits of GBP8 million (2013: GBP7 million) and a net interest charge
of GBP30 million (2013: GBP26 million). The higher net interest is
principally due to the additional cost of carry of the US dollar bond
issued in November 2012 that is not in the prior year.
Tax of GBP58 million (2013: GBP70 million) at an effective rate of 22.1%
reflects the lower rate of UK Corporation Tax (from 23.75% to 22.5%)
and a small phasing benefit in the quarter. The rate benefit received
in the quarter will be diluted over the remainder of the year. We
expect our effective tax rate for the full year to be approximately 23%
as we continue to benefit from reductions in the headline rate of
corporation tax.
Adjusted profit for the period was GBP205 million (2013: GBP221
million), generating basic earnings per share of 13.0 pence (2013: 13.4
pence). The number of shares, excluding the ESOP shares, at the end of
the quarter was 1,572 million. The weighted average number of shares in
the quarter, on the same basis and as used for the basic EPS
calculation, was 1,573 million.
Adjusting Items
Reported profit after tax of GBP193 million (2013: GBP219 million)
includes a net charge of GBP11 million from the integration following
the O2 acquisition comprising customer migration costs, costs
associated with running O2's network in addition to our own whilst the
migration process takes place, and amortisation of acquired intangible
assets.
The only other adjusting item in the quarter was a net GBP1 million
charge relating to mark-to-market values of derivative financial
instruments.
Additional detail is set out in Appendix 2.
Schedule 1 - KPI Summary
________________________________________________________________________
All figures
(000) FY11/12 FY12/13 FY13/14
unless
stated
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1
________________________________________________________________________
Total
paid-for
subscription
products 26,058 26,830 27,734 28,365 28,898 29,513 30,228 31,634 32,434
TV 10,213 10,253 10,268 10,288 10,308 10,358 10,388 10,422 10,459
Sky+HD 3,925 4,063 4,222 4,343 4,468 4,561 4,669 4,786 4,893
Multiroom 2,295 2,350 2,378 2,402 2,423 2,467 2,476 2,489 2,503
Sky Go
Extra - - - - - - 44 166 385
Broadband 3,485 3,651 3,863 4,001 4,103 4,235 4,387 4,906 5,017
Telephony 3,248 3,407 3,627 3,768 3,888 4,022 4,208 4,501 4,652
Line
Rental 2,892 3,106 3,376 3,563 3,708 3,870 4,056 4,364 4,525
New
connected
TV
services 1,829 2,549 3,211 3,735 4,023 4,781 5,546 5,966 6,642
Connected
HD boxes 204 442 604 995 1,255 1,715 2,284 2,709 3,351
Sky Go
unique
users 1,625 2,107 2,607 2,740 2,768 3,066 3,262 3,257 3,291
Total
products
and
services 27,887 29,379 30,945 32,100 32,921 34,294 35,774 37,600 39,076
Other
metrics:
Retail
customers 10,371 10,471 10,549 10,606 10,654 10,742 10,812 11,153 11,224
Wholesale
customers 3,569 3,629 3,657 3,672 3,714 3,751 3,801 3,677 3,617
Total
customers 13,940 14,100 14,206 14,278 14,368 14,493 14,613 14,830 14,841
ARPU
(GBP)* GBP528 GBP536 GBP538 GBP541 GBP542 GBP558 GBP567 GBP569 GBP559
Triple-
play % 28% 29% 31% 32% 33% 33% 34% 35% 36%
Churn 11.1% 9.6% 10.1% 9.9% 10.9% 10.3% 10.8% 10.9% 11.0%
Fixed
Network
Metrics
On-net
base 3,205 3,403 3,636 3,778 3,882 4,031 4,190 4,696 4,826
MPF base 1,869 2,146 2,423 2,588 2,762 2,926 3,159 3,359 3,504
SMPF
base 1,336 1,257 1,213 1,190 1,120 1,105 1,031 1,337 1,322
MPF % 58% 63% 67% 69% 71% 73% 75% 72% 73%
SMPF % 42% 37% 33% 31% 29% 27% 25% 28% 27%
Off-net
base 280 248 227 223 221 204 197 210 191
Total
Broadband 3,485 3,651 3,863 4,001 4,103 4,235 4,387 4,906 5,017
On-net % 92% 93% 94% 94% 95% 95% 96% 96% 96%
Total no.
of LLU
exchanges 1,732 1,907 1,964 1,965 2,036 2,108 2,202 2,323 2,354
________________________________________________________________________
*See schedule 2 for details of the ARPU restatement
Schedule 2 - Restated ARPU
_______________________________________________________________________
FY11/12 FY12/13 FY13/14
GBP Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1
_______________________________________________________________________
ARPU as previously reported 535 544 546 548 550 568 576 577 571
Cessation of ESPN retail
arrangement(1) (7) (8) (8) (7) (8)(10) (9) (8) (2)
Dilutive impact of O2 customer
base(2) (10)
ARPU 528 536 538 541 542 558 567 569 559
________________________________________________________________________
1. We have restated ARPU because from 31 July, we stopped receiving
revenue from retailing ESPN's sport channel. We received one month of
revenue, worth GBP2 of ARPU, in the quarter.
2. We have updated reported ARPU to include the 290,000 new O2
broadband customers consolidated in Q4 2013. As these customers do not
currently take a TV service they generally have a lower ARPU than
existing Sky customers and therefore their inclusion has a diluting
effect.
Enquiries:
Analysts/Investors:
Edward Steel Tel: 020 7032 2093
Lang Messer Tel: 020 7032 2657
E-mail: investor-relations@bskyb.com
Press:
Alice Macandrew Tel: 020 7705 3000
Stephen Gaynor Tel: 020 7705 3000
E-mail: corporate.communications@bskyb.com
There will be a conference call for UK/European analysts and investors
at 8.30 a.m. (BST). Participants should register by contacting Felicity
Marshall on +44 20 7251 3801 or at felicity.marshall@RLMFinsbury.com .
There will be a separate conference call for US analysts and investors
at 10.00 a.m. (EDT). To register for this please contact Dana Diver at
Taylor Rafferty on +1 212 889 4350. Alternatively you may register
online at http://invite.taylor-rafferty.com/_bskyb/2014Q1CC/Default.htm .
A live webcast of both conference calls will be available via the BSkyB
website at http://www.sky.com/corporate . Replays will subsequently be
available.
Use of measures not defined under IFRS
This press release contains certain information on the Group's
financial position, results and cash flows that have been derived from
measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. This information should
not be read in isolation from the related IFRS measures.
Forward looking statements
This document contains certain forward looking statements with respect
to the Group's financial condition, results of operations and business
and management's strategy, plans and objectives for the Group. These
statements include, without limitation, those that express forecasts,
expectations and projections, such as forecasts, expectations and
projections in relation to new products and services, the potential for
growth of free-to-air and pay television, fixed line telephony,
broadband and bandwidth requirements, advertising growth, DTH and OTT
customer growth, On Demand, NOW TV, Sky Go, Sky Go Extra, Sky+HD and
other services penetration, revenue, administration costs and other
costs, advertising growth, churn, profit, cash flow, product
penetration, our broadband network footprint, content, wholesale,
marketing and capital expenditure and proposals for returning capital
to shareholders.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such
forward looking statements are reasonable, these statements are not
guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks,
uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control,
are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied or forecast in the forward
looking statements. Information on the significant risks and
uncertainties are described in the "Principal risks and uncertainties"
section of Sky's Annual Report for the full year ended 30 June 2013.
Copies of the Annual Report are available from the British Sky
Broadcasting Group plc web page at www.sky.com/corporate .
All forward looking statements in this document are based on
information known to the Group on the date hereof. The Group undertakes
no obligation publicly to update or revise any forward looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
Glossary of Terms
A glossary of terms is included within the Annual Report and on our
corporate investor relations web page at http://corporate.sky.com/
investors/glossary.
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