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If there was a question about the original content ambitions of Comcast-backed pay-TV operator Sky under his new management, a movie and TV list of 125 titles for 2021 reflects a company poised to create. a distinct and stand-alone service capable of competing with its deep-pocketed SVOD rivals.
Sky at the end of 2019 renewed its production agreement with HBO – which allows the company to offer the best shows from the American cable company on its Sky Atlantic channel – for “several years,” but the company clearly foresees a future where WarnerMedia is pulling the plug on the international license in favor of its own platform, HBO Max, which is now putting its house in order in Latin America and Europe.
The contract has “quite a few years to run,” says Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content at Sky UK, “but you can put two and two together: where people go straight to the consumer, we have to have our own content. … We must make our business sustainable. “
Bennett notes that Sky has to “plan a storyline in which HBO says it’s now [expanding HBO Max] around the world and we need to be able to say, “Okay, good luck, but we’re fine. Likewise, we have to be able to pay some money and say, “Are you sure you don’t want to license programs to us? But at the end of the day, we have to stay in control of the things we control. “
And, for Sky, it’s original content, which generally gets higher ratings than acquired programs (Pulse Films’ ‘Gangs of London’ was Sky’s craziest show of 2020), with the exception of American hits like Hugh Grant and the thriller Nicole Kidman. The Undoing ”and, of course,“ Game of Thrones ”.
The 125 movies and TV shows represent a 50% increase from 2020 and include 30 Sky Original films as well as 30 original documentaries.
Bennett says that despite the major restructuring of the company’s leadership – which sees the departure of longtime executives Gary Davey and Sky boss Jeremy Darroch, ending the old Sky regime – figures such as Stephen van Rooyen , CEO of Sky UK and Europe, “provide stability”.
Bennett reveals that Sky Group’s new CEO Dana Strong has arrived in the UK and is starting to meet with the teams after his mandatory quarantine period.
“The bottom line for us is that Comcast has owned the business for several years now, and we made a big announcement regarding the investment in our original productions. [in June 2019] and they were really a part of it, ”Bennett says, citing Sky plans to invest $ 1 billion in content by 2024.“ Their support resulted in this, so no changes there and we’re still going. go. “
In the short term, there will be increased investment in films, with plans to launch two new original films each month, with a target of one new feature film per week in 2022. The strategy is “partially inspired by COVID”, Bennett says, “But it’s also about having a distinctive character in the brand.”
The list of films includes “A Boy Called Christmas”, “Disparu”, “Monster Family 2”, “Save The Cinema”, “Creation Stories”, “Six Minutes to Midnight”, “The Glorias”, “Jolt”, ” SAS: Avis rouge ”,“ The Comeback Trail ”,“ Breaking News In Yuba County ”and“ Antebellum ”.
Sky Cinema’s marketing hook is a movie offering “that you can’t get anywhere else,” says the executive, who has personally decided to lean more into the film space, especially when competitors like Netflix have prepared a slate of films that make the eye water. movies every week of the year. “We offer a variety of genres, including family pieces. The main thing is that they have the best talents and are of high quality. “
So far, the pay-TV operator has made deals with all Hollywood studios except Disney.
Bennett also specifies that Sky “wants the [theatrical model] work ”, so that we can provide a pipeline for the service. That being said, various models are under consideration. Movies like Universal’s ‘Trolls World Tour’ have been launched day and day on the platform, while ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ debuted after a one-time month-long theatrical window, as agreed with UK exhibitors, revealed. by Variety in December. Although the “Wonder Woman 1984” deal is ultimately not exclusive to Sky despite advanced negotiations, exclusivity is the ultimate goal.
“For some films we order scripts and there from the very beginning,” Bennett explains. With other films that studios can’t necessarily release in the COVID era – not necessarily the big blockbusters, but on the next level, he says – Sky can buy the UK window and mark them as Sky Originals. For example, “A Boy Called Christmas” is with Netflix in most of the world, but on Sky in the UK. For other movies, a PVOD deal may make more sense.
Elsewhere, Sky will also air new original documentaries, including ‘Liverpool Narcos’, an exploration of how Liverpool became the epicenter of a drug boom that would change Britain forever; “Chernobyl 86”, a revealing look at recently discovered images of the Chernobyl disaster; “Positive”, look back at Britain’s 40-year fight against HIV / AIDS; and “The Bambers: Murder at the Farm,” a forensic review of the case of Jeremy Bamber and the White House Farm murders, produced by Louis Theroux and Aaron Fellows.
On the drama side, the pay-TV operator is looking to build on the success of shows, including the hit “Chernobyl”, “Gangs of London” and “I Hate Suzie”.
Sky revealed on Saturday that “Tenet” actor Kenneth Branagh will play Boris Johnson in his upcoming drama “This Sceptred Isle,” written and directed by Michael Winterbottom. The highly anticipated series will detail the UK’s chaotic response to the coronavirus crisis.
Other new TV releases include “Wolfe”, with Babou Ceesay (“Guerilla”, “Rogue One”) as a forensic pathologist and written by Paul Abbott (“Shameless”); “The Midwich Cuckoos”, a modern adaptation of the classic science fiction novel by John Wyndham by David Farr (“The Night Manager”); and “Extinction”, an action thriller about a man who keeps reliving the same day over and over again, written by Joe Barton (“Giri / Haji”) and starring Paapa Essiedu (“I can destroy you”), Tom Burke (“Strike”), Anjli Mohindra (“Bodyguard”) and Caroline Quentin (“Men Behaving Badly”).
Ultimately, all content will also land on Sky’s popular SVOD service, Now TV, which hosts movies and TV shows made available to subscribers with various dedicated ‘passes’.
When asked if there was a chance that NBCUniversal’s Peacock would land on Now TV in one form or another – similar to what Disney Plus is doing with its Star service aimed at adults, which will become a tile on Disney Plus Internationally – Bennett says no plans are underway so far.
“Right now, Peacock is an American service,” Bennett says. “Right now, we share a lot of things: they have a lot of our comedies and we’ve taken ‘Brave New World’, and we’re also co-producing documents together. But in our territory, it’s Sky, and in the United States, it’s Peacock. I don’t see them coexisting anytime soon. “
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