Sky, TalkTalk extend distribution partnership
July 23, 2014
Sky and UK quadplay operator TalkTalk have agreed a new wholesale deal to broaden and extend the distribution of Sky Sports and Sky Movies to TalkTalk’s TV customers.
The multi-year agreement will see TalkTalk continue to offer its customers Sky’s sports and movies channels on its YouView service. The deal also includes the rights to catch up content for the channels.
From 12 August, TalkTalk’s Sky Sports customers will receive the brand new channel Sky Sports 5, giving them access to up to 600 live European football matches a season, including UEFA Champions League and UEFA EURO 2016. The full range of Sky Sports channels will be available to TalkTalk customers through its monthly Sky Sports Boost package.
The agreement additionally includes new rights for TalkTalk to offer Sky Sports Box Office, which lets customers watch major live boxing and wrestling events on a pay-per-view basis. This will give TalkTalk TV customers yet another flexible way to access Sky Sports content. Earlier this year Sky started offering TalkTalk customers the ability to purchase the Sky Sports day pass through its Internet TV service NOW TV on TalkTalk’s YouView platform.
This new agreement builds on a long-standing wholesale relationship between Sky and TalkTalk which has been offering its YouView customers access to a wide range of Sky’s entertainment, sports and movie channels since its launch in 2012. In February, Sky and TalkTalk renewed an agreement to provide a broad selection of Sky’s entertainment channels to TalkTalk pay TV homes for another three years, and extended it to include on-demand catch up content from channels such as Sky 1, Sky Living and Sky Arts.
Tristia Harrison, Managing Director Consumer, TalkTalk, said: “As TalkTalk TV goes from strength to strength, we are delighted to have expanded our partnership with Sky even further. Our customers love the ability to dip in and out of the TV they love and this new agreement means we can continue to offer the flexible access to great content we are fast becoming famous for.”
Mai Fyfield, Group Director, Strategy and Business Development, Sky said: “We’re delighted to be extending our wholesale partnership with TalkTalk to offer their customers access to even more great content from Sky. As we continue to increase our investment in high-quality TV, we want to continue to broaden the distribution of our content and grow our content-related revenues. We look forward to TalkTalk customers being able to continue to enjoy the best of Sky, including the brand new Sky Sports 5 channel launching next month.”