This summer, Sky will launch an initiative to bring the best of the arts to its 21 million customers across Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland and the UK. The broadcaster claims that this will mark the first major international content initiative since the creation of the new Sky in November 2014. More arts programming has been promised, in addition to the launch of a new on-demand service and the extension of Sky Arts to new international audiences.
The new initiative will be anchored by the launch of the Sky Arts Production Hub, a commissioning and production centre based in Milan, dedicated to creating arts programming for Sky customers across Europe. The Production Hub will focus on producing pan-European events, as well as a wide slate of arts programming for customers across all Sky territories in addition to content commissioned locally.
Sky Arts in the UK and Ireland will undergo a major re-launch, offering customers an on-demand catalogue of arts programming with over 1,000 hours of content including programmes commissioned and acquired only for on-demand viewing. In addition, the Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2 channels will merge, and begin broadcasting on 9 June. Sky Arts will also be coming to Germany and Austria.
Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive, Sky said: “Bringing the three Sky businesses together has opened up the opportunity to create new and exciting content on a greater scale. As an international company, we can raise our ambition and make a bigger impact for millions of customers across Europe.
Today’s announcement represents a major new commitment which will bring customers high-quality and distinctive content covering the full breadth of the arts. It builds on Sky’s position as Europe’s leading entertainment company and underlines our ambition to invest at scale in even more of our own original content.”
Image: Stephen Mangan and Anna Maxwell Martin in Birthday, 9 June
