New accounts filed with Companies House in the UK for Sky Subscribers Services Ltd reveal the Irish branch revenues were £6m down on the 2023 revenues of £510m.
However, this is wholly attributable to foreign exchange fluctuations between sterling and the euro during 2024.
Sky Ireland conducts its business in euro and its revenues in that currency actually increased during 2024 by 1.14pc before the foreign-exchange differences were taken into account.
A note attached to the accounts states that the Irish revenues comprise “direct-to-home” pay television, broadband and telephony services.
The stable revenues at Sky Ireland for 2024 come against a background of efforts to clamp down on so-called TV “dodgy boxes” which are used to illegally stream paid 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.
The revenues include Sky Ireland’s advertising take in Ireland, where the Premier League is its marquee product. In December 2023, the Premier League agreed a new deal with Sky and TNT Sports whereby the competition will receive £6.7bn over four years for its UK television rights.
Sky coverage of the Premier League. Photo: Getty
Overall revenues at Sky Subscribers Services Ltd in 2024 dipped marginally from £1.03bn to £1.01bn, as operating profits decreased by 9pc from £78m to £71m.
However, a jump in investment income from £23m to £42m, offset by finance costs of £3m, contributed to pre-tax profits increasing by 11pc from £99m to £110m.
The company recorded post-tax profits of £96m after taking into account a corporation tax charge of £14m.
The accounts include a cost of £133m for programming and a note states that “within programming expenses we have included direct network costs associated with the Irish branch of £76m”.
Sky employs just under 1,000 people in Ireland across a range of functions including sales, marketing, finance, retail, support and customer service.
Numbers employed across Sky Subscribers reduced from 8,963 to 8,164 last year as staff costs declined from £335m to £320m.
The scale of the Sky Ireland business – with revenues of €578m in 2024 – is underlined when set against the money raised by the €160 TV licence, which generated €195m that same year.
The accounts state that a decision to shut down three Sky contact centres this year in England is expected to cost in the range of £30m to £35m.
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