Global Sky News ‘possible’
April 26, 2019
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in an earnings call that it is exploring the possibility of “launching a global NBC-Sky news channel later this year.”
He said Comcast was moving ahead to combine key NBCUniversal and Sky assets, including some European TV channels and global content distribution businesses as well as to collaborate more closely on advertising.
“Its early days, but we are finding significant areas for collaboration,” said Roberts. There’s AdSmart, bringing together NBCUniversal’s advanced targeting solutions and Sky’s addressable advertising tools, as “a first step towards creating a global premium video offering for advertisers”. Also the integration of Sky Vision with NBC’s global TV distribution, the enhancement of Sky’s products with Comcast Cable’s XFi and voice technology and the leveraging of each other’s content by sharing Universal films and TV shows as well as Sky Sports and NBC Sports Network programming.
One of the conditions set by the UK government to approve Comcast’s takeover of Sky was that Sky News would need to maintain its editorial independence under its new owner.