Sky Ireland records revenues of €578.4m as it clamp down on 'dodgy boxes'
Gordon Deegan
The race between Man City and Arsenal for the 2024 Premier League title helped Sky Ireland’s business to achieve revenues of £504 million (€578.46m) last year.
New accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Sky Subscribers Services Ltd reveal the Irish branch saw revenues £6 million down on the previous year.
However, the drop is wholly attributable to foreign exchange fluctuations between Sterling and the Euro, as Sky Ireland conducts its business in Euros and Sky Ireland’s euro revenues actually increased during 2024 by 1.14 per cent before the foreign exchange differences are taken into account.
A note attached to the accounts states that the Irish revenues comprise 'direct to home' pay television, broadband and telephony services here.
The stable revenues at Sky Ireland for 2024 come against a background of the company’s efforts to clamp down on so-called TV 'dodgy boxes’ which are used to illegally stream content such as sports and movies.
Revenues at the Sky Ireland operation were boosted in 2024 with the company launching its Sky mobile phone service, and it had 13,000 customers by year end.
ComReg figures also show that Sky Ireland’s broadband customer base increased by 10,000 to 264,000 during 2024.
Overall revenues at Sky Subscribers Services Ltd in 2024 dipped marginally from £1.03 billion to £1.01 billion as operating profits decreased by 9 per cent to £71 million.
However, a jump in investment income from £23 million to £42 million offset by finance costs of £3 million contributed to pre-tax profits increasing by 11 per cent to £110 million.
The company recorded post-tax profits of £96m after taking into account a corporation tax charge of £14m.
The accounts include a cost of £133 million for programming, and a note states that “within programming expenses we have included Direct Network costs associated with the Irish branch of £76 million”.
Sky employs just under 1,000 people in Ireland, across a range of functions including sales, marketing, finance, retail, support and customer service.
