Sky in bid to stem customer exodus

Sky plans to introduce a loyalty scheme to stem a rise in customer defections that, together with a jump in the cost of soccer broadcasting rights, cast a shadow over first-half results yesterday.

The company, which has accepted a buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox, reported a 9% drop in first-half operating profit and said that the customer churn rate in its biggest market, Britain, rose to 11.6% from 10.2% a year earlier.

Chief executive Jeremy Darroch said that Sky needs to do “a better job across the board” to hold on to customers, adding that British customers who had taken its services for a number of years would be offered package upgrades and other benefits, replicating a loyalty programme it has in Italy.