Growing demand for TV and broadband services in Britain, Ireland, Germany and Austria have helped Sky to beat market expectations - posting an 18 percent increase in its full year operating profit.

Strong demand increased revenues by 5 percent to £11.3bn (€16bn) - combined with cut costs, this resulted in the posting of a £1.4bn profit.

The Sky Group, which is comprised of the UK's BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia serves 20 million customers across Europe.

In Britain and Ireland it enjoyed its strongest organic growth in 11 years - while growth in Germany and Austria was at record-highs.

Sky's performance in Italy stabilised after three years of losses.

Chief executive, Jeremy Darroch commented on the results: "The investments we have made have given us a strong platform on which to build and we have a clear set of plans to deliver long-term growth and returns for our shareholders."

"We think the outlook for growth is good," he continued, "The prospects for growth for the business over the next year, and there after are very good."

Sky shares have enjoyed a 5 percent bounce in early trading.