Sky to axe hundreds of jobs - report

(Sharecast News) - Hundreds of job are set to be cut at Sky, it was reported on Tuesday, as the broadcaster looks to improve existing services following a stream of product launches.

According to the Financial Times, citing unnamed people familiar with the plans, around 900 jobs will be affected.

Around 600 jobs will be lost, with people in another 300 roles redeployed elsewhere within Sky.

Sky, which is based in west London, is owned by US media giant Comcast. It currently employs around 23,000 people in the UK.

In recent years it has massively expanded the range of products and services it offers, including the smart TV Sky Glass and streaming service Sky Stream.

However, a source told the FT that with the product development phase complete, the focus now was "more about improving what we already have".

Sky told the newspaper: "As we look ahead, we are shifting our approach to bring customers the next generation of experience by investing in digital-first service, unbeatable content and even better performance from our products."

Comcast acquired Sky in 2018, beating rival bidder Disney in a mammoth £31bn deal.

According to the most recently available set of accounts, in 2023 Sky posted pre-tax losses of £773m on revenues of £10.2bn, after it wrote down £1.2bn in loans to its German and Italian operations.

The firm has already sought to cut costs, including axing 2,000 customer service positions in March and 1,000 roles last year.

Last year's job cuts were primarily in engineering, as customers increasingly migrate to digital services which do not require a satellite dish.