Sky hails record-breaking British content month
November 1, 2013
By Colin Mann
Sky has revealed that September saw more home-grown Sky shows appearing in the broadcaster’s list of the top ten most popular programmes than ever before.
Writing in the Sky Views blog, Stuart Murphy, Director, Entertainment Channels, reports that in total, eight of the top ten shows across Sky’s entertainment channels were British shows commissioned by Sky. “Not only that, but our home-grown shows also took the first eight spots in the top ten, with Sky Living HD’s Supernatural the highest-placed US series in ninth,” he notes.
“Seeing our customers react in this way to our raft of home-grown shows is hugely rewarding. It supports our belief that top-quality, well-written and lovingly crafted home-grown shows really resonate with customers, and follows our commitment in 2011 to increase our investment in British content to £600 million a year by the end of 2014,” he says.
According to Murphy, September’s top ten also reveals that customers are both loving Sky’s new home-grown shows and loving watching them on their own terms. “Charlie Brooker and Daniel Maier’s fantastically silly police spoof A Touch of Cloth II: Undercover Cloth proved particularly popular on demand and on the move, with a combined total of more than 100,000 on demand downloads and Sky Go views. I just love the idea that people are giggling their way into work at John Hannah and Suranne Jones’ straight-faced idiocy,” he admits.
“Last month saw the launch of our brand new home-grown doc series Harrow: A Very British School. The show pulled in just under a million viewers, making it the third most popular show on the Sky entertainment channels last month. Both my parents and my kids love this show,” he says.
“Our customers also continue to love our big US series too, as Ray Donovan, Sky Atlantic’s thrilling drama starring Liv Schreiber and Jon Voight, continues its acclaimed run. Loads of Sky customers are catching up with the show on demand and on the move (the equivalent of 15 per cent of the total weekly audience watching on Sky Go or downloading the show to their Sky+HD box). And if you haven’t got Sky Go, download it now – it’s available at no extra charge to Sky customers and is very, very simple to use,” he advises.
“Finally, I’m really pleased that that consistent crowd-pleaser A League of Their Own again tops the chart for a second month in a row, attracting a total of more than 1.3 million viewers. James [Corden] is a very funny man, and such a nice bloke off camera, as are all the teams. I properly love this show. We’ve one more in the run for you to see, in which Freddie [Flintoff] gets a bit carried away behind the wheel of a rally car. Like all our entertainment, a funny, feel-good show,” he suggests.