 from Sky, as it was forced to reduce its future cash flow assumptions in the face of the cost of living crisis in Europe triggered by war in Ukraine. Brian Roberts, the billionaire Comcast chairman who ambushed the Murdoch family and Disney to take control of Sky in 2018 said: 'At Sky, our team continues to prudently manage through a difficult and rapidly changing macroeconomic and geopolitical period in the UK and Europe.' Sky's third-quarter sales plunged 14.7pc to $4.3bn, with the weakness of sterling and the euro against the dollar accounted for most of the decline. Comcast said that adjusted for foreign exchange fluctuations, Sky turnover was flat for the quarter and down slightly so far this year. The third quarter is traditionally crucial for Sky as it includes the start of the football season. This year it also benefitted from the launch of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, to attract 320,000 new customers. It represented a dramatic turnaround from the same period last year, when 233,000 deserted Sky. Most new customers would have been subscribers to its streaming service Now TV or its broadband packages. Sky no longer reveals how many more lucrative satellite subscribers it has, although the number has been in decline for some years. Excluding currency fluctuations, underlying profits for the quarter, adjusted for one-off costs, slumped 15.5pc to $701m. Comcast said this was mostly a result of the timing of sports rights bills. However, Sky has suffered a series of challenges since Mr Roberts paid what even then was seen as a very full price for the company. Its crucial sports broadcasting business was hit hard by the pandemic, the cost of living crisis has squeezed consumer discretionary spen){kind=link}
The company reduced its future cash flow assumptions in the face of the cost of living crisis
The US owner of Sky has written off a quarter of its valuation over a gloomy outlook for Britain and Europe, just four years after winning a bidding war for the broadcaster with a $39bn knockout blow.
Comcast said it had wiped $8.6bn (£7.4bn) from Sky, as it was forced to reduce its future cash flow assumptions in the face of the cost of living crisis in Europe triggered by war in Ukraine.
Brian Roberts, the billionaire Comcast chairman who ambushed the Murdoch family and Disney to take control of Sky in 2018 said: “At Sky, our team continues to prudently manage through a difficult and rapidly changing macroeconomic and geopolitical period in the UK and Europe.”
Sky’s third-quarter sales plunged 14.7pc to $4.3bn, with the weakness of sterling and the euro against the dollar accounted for most of the decline. Comcast said that adjusted for foreign exchange fluctuations, Sky turnover was flat for the quarter and down slightly so far this year.