It may not have been the biggest factor but the GAA’s TV deal with Sky was part of a good news story this week with the broadcaster’s group revenues increasing by 5% to £11.283bn for the 12 months ending 30th June 2015.
The increase translates to an 18% increase in operating profit to £1.4bn.
The UK and Ireland business delivered revenues up 6% to £7.82bn and operating profit up 12% to £1.35bn.
On the sport side the report reveals that Sky has secured 35 deals in the past 18 months, including that with the GAA, and CEO Jeremy Darroch, who visited Ireland recently and met with leading Government figures, suggested that sport was continuing to deliver a massive reason to buy and reason to stay.
The pay per view fight between Mayweather and Pacquaio in May was the most successful fight ever on the network in terms of revenue and there are 120 fight nights scheduled over the next six years.
Customer growth of 506,000 was the highest annual organic customer growth in 11 years, according to the pay-television group, and took Sky’s base past 12 million, while churn in the UK and Ireland was also the lowest it has been across that same period.
Sport Remains Massive Winner for Sky
