Sky and Liberty Global allegedly in talks for full-fibre investment

Sky is reportedly in discussions with Liberty Global to add further fuel to the full-fibre machine which is engulfing the UK at an increasing rapid rate.

After a new company, Liberty Fibre Ltd, was registered with Companies House in the UK last week, parent company Liberty Global has allegedly entered talks with Sky UK to add additional investment to the scheme. According to the Financial Times, with Sky moving away from satellite connectivity for its content proposition, the team are seeking more attractive wholesales terms, with Virgin Media providing a potential alternative.

As it stands, Openreach is the incumbent wholesale partner to Sky. The wholesale giant has enjoyed market dominance in recent years, though numerous ‘alt-nets’ and alternative providers are creating a much more competitive market. Sky is supposedly in talks with Virgin Media to use its fibre network to deliver its broadband and OTT content service, and the creation of another wholesale fibre business would further lessen the dependence on Openreach in the rural locations.

The new company, Liberty Fibre Ltd, will aim to deploy full-fibre networks in locations outside of the main urban areas, the primary focus for the vast majority of network owners. Virgin Media will become the anchor tenant of the network, though should the rumoured discussions continue as planned, Sky would become an investor in the scheme and a second customer.

For Liberty Global, attracting Sky as a customer would be a significant win.

Although it does not own any of its own network assets (fixed or mobile), Sky is one of the most successful broadband providers in the UK. Although Sky has stopped reporting total subscription numbers, most estimates put the total number of broadband customers between 6.2 million and 6.5 million. This would give Sky roughly a 20% market share, even with Virgin Media and second behind BT. Currently, Sky has a fibre penetration of 38%.

The commitment of a heavyweight such as Sky would certainly lesson the financial burden of deploying a fibre network in areas where ROI projections are certainly less attractive than the dense urban environments. The attractiveness of Sky as a customer only increases when you consider the increasingly popular OTT video drive and aggressive fibre broadband marketing campaigns.

Although Sky is still primarily known for being the premium satellite pay-TV content provider in the UK, the OTT proposition, Now TV, is becoming increasingly popular. After being acquired by Comcast, Sky is likely to attract additional advertising revenues from the parent-company to further consolidate an attractive position in the UK.

After years of neglect, the full-fibre market in the UK is gathering momentum very quickly. It is still years behind other nations across the European continent, but the creation of a new fibre wholesale player will add more fuel to the blaze as glass sweeps across the isles. Liberty Fibre Ltd is an interesting idea, and if it can nail Sky as an investor and customer, its prospects will certainly head north.