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Uneasy rest the buttocks on the iron throne. Profits plunge 14% at Sky UK and Ireland

Meanwhile firm signs up 97k mobile customers

Sky's operating profits plunged 14 per cent to £1.3bn in the UK and Ireland, on revenue up 4 per cent to £8.6bn for the Game Of Thrones broadcaster and broadband pusher's full-year results.

The fall in profits was mainly due to to the higher cost of Premier League rights and investment in the business.

The firm said a total of £504m in operating expenses had been deducted, which also included the costs of integrating Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, the costs of corporate efficiency programmes, and advisory costs associated with the 21st Century Fox offer.

Last month, Sky’s proposed £11.7bn takeover by Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox has been referred to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority regulator.

Sky’s mobile service – it's now an MNVO with a wholesale deal to use the O2 this year – racked up a total of 97,000 customers for the full year ended June. The firm also said it has increased broadband customers and fibre penetration by 27 per cent, but did not break down the figure.

Overall group revenue increased 5 per cent to £12.9bn, with operating profits down 6 per cent to £1.46bn.

Jeremy Darroch, group chief exec, said: “Sky Mobile will continue to scale up as we take advantage of the headroom in our customer base and offer our customers more Sky products.

“Loyalty will be recognised and rewarded through a new tenure-based loyalty programme in the UK, building on the outstanding success of a similar programme in Italy.

“We will continue to identify opportunities to reach new customers through the recently launched new portfolio of channels and pricing to drive growth in Sky.” ®

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