Things are not looking good for Sky Germany. Parent company Comcast published falling figures for Q3 2022. There are also rumors of a sale.
In the summer it was said that Sky would lose customers but would still be profitable. However, that has now changed. Immediately came the announcement that many people hear all too often lately: price increase! Sky will not only raise prices for existing customers, there are also rumors about a possible sale of the company.
Comcast’s quarterly results aren’t good
Since 2018, Sky has belonged to the US group Comcast. He has now announced the figures for the third quarter of 2022 – and they don’t look particularly rosy. According to the figures, the number of subscribers increased, but that did not mean a profit for Sky; on the contrary. According to Comcast, sales even fell by almost 15 percent. It is also very likely that the currently growing number of subscriptions is linked to major titles such as “House of the Dragon” on the one hand, and events such as the World Cup in Qatar on the other.
A not inconsiderable number of users are likely to cancel their subscription after a certain period of time. In Germany, this should also have led to the now rising prices at Sky. For customers, this means that after DAZN, Amazon Prime and Apple, Sky is the next streaming provider to increase its prices.
Price increase for existing Sky customers
A Sky spokesman said: “We recognize that price increases are never welcome. So we try to keep prices as low as possible while still offering the content our customers love and the flexibility to choose the right package.”
How exactly the price increase at Sky is designed is a bit tricky and depends on the package booked. The company has not yet announced exact prices. It is only known that the increases are between 1.00 and 9.99 euros. According to Sky, the price increase of almost ten euros would only affect five percent of users. As a rule, it is less than five euros per month. The streaming provider would also like to introduce more flexible termination options. The new prices should be implemented as soon as possible, but by spring 2023 at the latest. Sky customers will continue to receive mail throughout the winter informing them of the adjustments to their individual tariff.
The prices for new customers, on the other hand, remain untouched for the time being. However, it is considered likely that Sky will also turn the price screw here in the long term.
Sales rumors about Sky Germany
The current developments will probably not remain without consequences for Sky. The parent company Comcast had to write off 8.6 billion US dollars for the pay-TV channel. According to a Bloomberg report, this has led to the sale of Sky Germany being considered. Only the British market did well in Q3 2022. The US pay-TV provider complains that the losses in Germany and Italy have eaten up this growth.
Even if many football fans would like to be sold to DAZN in order to only have to pay for a large subscription in the future, this is considered unlikely. The entertainment division at Sky Germany is too big for that and DAZN sees itself as a pure sports provider. A sale to Warner Bros. Discovery is more likely. The group recently announced that it would shut down the HBO Max streaming service and focus on the new Discovery offering. But maybe Disney is still interested after losing the bidding war to Comcast in 2018.