Sky Italia grows despite Italo crisis

ROME -- News Corp.'s Italian paybox Sky Italia saw significant growth in the last quarter despite the country's economic crisis, which is instead impacting rival Mediaset Premium.While Sky Italia gained just 23,000 new subscribers in Q4, up to 5.03 million subs in December 2011, profits at Rupert Murdoch's nine-year-old satcaster rose to a $6 million operating income thanks to increased advertising and subscription intake and lower operating costs. Sky's growth spurt marks a substantial improvement over its $12 million operating loss reported a year ago.By contrast Mediaset Premium, which is controlled by former Italo premier Silvio Berlusconi, is losing subs, according to latest results, posted in November 2011, and predicting operating losses of $66 million for fiscal 2011.In a conference call, News Corp. chief financial officer Dave DeVoe characterized Sky Italia's performance as ''very good results given the significant slowdown of the Italian economy.''Commented chief operating officer Chase Carey: ''We successfully tackled the competitive challenge from our major industry competitor as well as a challenging regulatory environment to regenerate growth and excitement in our business.''Carey added that Sky's business was ''pretty resistant to the economic headwinds,'' but not immune. ''We expect short-term growth to be impacted by Italy's macro situation, but we are extremely bullish on the long-term potential.'' Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com