Sky Italia subscribers have dropped to 4.6 million, compared to 5 million in the pre-Covid period, according to market figures obtained by business daily Milano Finanza.

The decline is partly down to a lack of live sports events as lockdown measures came in, but also as a result of rampant piracy.

The negative results have prompted CEO Maximo Ibarra to consider a staff rationalisation plan, which would be implemented from January 2021 and would see the loss of 350 jobs out of a workforce of around 4,000.

There is also positive news, as the number of DTT subscribers continues to grow – reaching 600,000, and optical fibre activations are above initial forecasts. DTT ARPU, however, is around €27, compared to an ARPU of €41-€42 for satellite subscribers.

Much of the future strategy will depend on the results of the upcoming Serie A football rights auction for the period 2021-2024.

Other posts by :

1. Equatys wants 2,800 new satellites
2. FCC eyes freeing up Weird Space Stuff spectrum
3. SES happy with releasing 160MHz of spectrum for 5G
4. Inmarsat “likely to win appeal” over Ligado/AST action
5. FCC seeks fair play over foreign satellite access
6. Bank raises RocketLab target price
7. Paramount throws kitchen sink
8. Ukraine wants its own LEO system
9. SpaceX outlines Starlink cellular delivery plan

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Pay TV

Tags: sky, sky italia