The Premier League and other European leagues returned to action over the summer
Sky owner Comcast has revealed that the return of European football has helped the broadcaster to grow revenues in the third quarter.
Comcast said: “higher wholesale revenue from sports programming as European football leagues resumed” was to thank for a 0.3% growth in revenues to $4.8 billion (£3.7 billion).
The drop in customer relationships slowed as well, with a drop of 21,000 to 23.7 million in Q3. This is after a drop of 214,000 in the prior three months.
The Premier League and other European football competitions resumed over the summer, after Covid-19 enforced breaks. A shortened pre-season also meant that the 2020-21 campaigns were in full flow shortly afterwards.
With fans unable to attend matches in stadiums, all games have been aired on TV in the UK – albeit with some criticism for a recent move to pay-per-view enforced by the Premier League. This, combined with pandemic guidance likely led to ‘higher programming and production expenses’ – which were blamed for a drop in EBITDA (a measure of financial strength).