Sky (LON:SKY) reported a strong start to the year but the loss of Champions League football TV rights hit its Italian business.
The satellite broadcaster said group operating profit rose 10% to £375mln on a 6% increase in group revenue to £2.8bn in the three months to September 30.
It boosted customers by 7% or 134,000 against the previous year, meaning it added almost a million new customers over the past 12 months, up 51% year on year.
In the UK, customer numbers rose by more than half or 77,000 year-on-year and the highest first quarter growth rate for four years. Broadband customer numbers in the UK lifted by133,000 or 77% year on year.
The group is facing growing competition in the UK from rival BT (LON:BT.A), which has snatched all domestic rights to show Champions League football from this season.
BT is also posing a challenge in cricket, where it has won rights to show live Australian cricket including the next Ashes series Down Under, although Sky still holds all rights to live TV coverage of English domestic and Test cricket.
In Italy, where its product is more sport-focused, the group lost 37,000 customers following the loss of domestic rights to show the Champions League.
Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said: "We have made a strong start to the year with customers responding well."
Richard Hunter at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said Sky’s share price has risen 25% over the last year, as compared to a 1% hike for the wider FTSE100.
He said: "Whilst the stock does not look overly expensive on an earnings basis, this spike could lead to the view that the shares are up with events for the moment, with the market consensus coming in at a hold, albeit a strong one."