The broadcaster's revenue has decreased in Italy on several fronts but strong performances elsewhere are keeping balance
Comcast, the parent company of Sky has reported a drop in revenues during the first quarter of 2022. The company recently revealed its Q1 results, reporting a 4.5% decrease in overall revenue. The total revenue during this time period has been reported as $4.8 billion.
CEO Brian Roberts has said that Comcast is still pleased with the performance of the telecomms giant in Italy, Germany and the UK, despite these results. The company blamed the losses on the "impact of currency" and said that revenue had been "consistent with the prior year period, reflecting lower content revenue, higher advertising revenue, and consistent direct-to-consumer revenue".
However, many believe that Sky losing the exclusive domestic broadcast rights to Serie A football in Italy to OTT platform DAZN before the season started is hampering overall income.
Content revenue is down 14.3% after several licensing agreements in Italy and Germany changed, including the Serie A deal. Comcast did however report a 7.9% increase in advertising income. Despite lower ad revenues in Italy, mostly caused by the loss of Serie A football rights, Sky managed to achieve this overall increase thanks to a strong performance in the UK ad market.
This is the second recent declaration of optimism from Sky, after Managing Director Jonathan Licht said that Sky would survive without Premier League football in the UK, should a changing of the guard ever take place there.
Direct-to-consumer revenue stayed consistent in the UK and relations with consumers increased in Germany, but both successes are dampened somewhat by further losses in Italy. Total consumers in Italy dropped by 106,000 in the first quarter of 2022 as Sky reels from losing Serie A to DAZN.
Losing that contract does seem to be hurting Sky in Italy and it's hard to know how long those losses can be offset by performance elsewhere on the continent. With Sky themselves foreshadowing the possibility of losing Premier League football rights in the UK, the coming quarters and years could be precarious for the broadcasting behemoth.
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