Sky ad revenue down 9% as Comcast reports lower profit

Sky’s advertising revenue declined 9.6% in Q4 2022 and decreased 1.9% for the full fiscal year 2022 when excluding the impact of currency.

The Comcast-owned broadcaster retained consistent year-over-year total revenue for Q4, however, reflecting constancy in direct-to-consumer revenue and a 6.5% increase in content revenue.

Adjusted Ebitda, the company’s measure of profit, declined 15.1% year-over-year for Sky, primarily due to higher operating expenses, including a $53m increase in severance expenses. Excluding severance, profit still declined 2.0% year-over-year due to higher direct network costs driven by growth in its residential mobile and broadband businesses.

Full-year revenue for Sky totalled $17.9bn in 2022, a decline of 11.5% from the $20.3bn it earned in revenue in 2021. 2021 saw a large increase in TV adspend as the pandemic began to recede, making revenue figures expectedly difficult to match. However, Sky’s revenue also declined 6.7% when compared to pre-pandemic figures (Sky earned $19.2bn in revenue in 2019).

Though Sky saw a challenging third and fourth quarter—in October, Comcast registered a write-down of $8.6bn related to “goodwill and intangible assets” in Sky due to “macroeconomic conditions” in its territories—excluding currency impacts, adjusted Ebitda nevertheless increased 20.3% for the 12 months ended 31 December, 2022.

Comcast itself saw Q4 year-over-year declines in adjusted Ebitda of 4.9%; revenues increased 0.7%.