Sky Deutschland reveals content plan “for a new era”
June 22, 2020
Sky Deutschland has announced a major new content plan to that it says will “shakeup TV in Germany and take Sky into a new era”.
Sky will deliver its plan through a combination of partnerships and development of its entertainment, movies and sports offering – and it starts with an extension of Sky’s deal with the Bundesliga to 2025.
Devesh Raj, Chief Executive Officer of Sky Deutschland, commented: “We plan to shake things up and excite German consumers with an unmatched TV experience. Our aim is to offer something for everyone and start a new era for TV in Germany. Sky will continue to be the leading place for sport fans, as we offer exclusive Bundesliga, heart-racing Formula 1 and much, much more. For those that love stories we have thousands of films from the biggest movie studios; our award-winning Sky Originals, and content from all the best apps, like Netflix, and Disney+ coming in early 2021, all available on the world’s best platform, Sky Q.”
Sky will continue to be the home of live sport – including more UHD – with new deals signed for exclusive Bundesliga and Formula 1.
Sky will be the only place to watch the most important Bundesliga matches including the top match on Saturday evening live. Sky will show live 511 Bundesliga matches across both leagues, 83% of the total number of matches, with coverage throughout the whole weekend, from Friday to Sunday. The award-winning Sky Conference for both leagues will remain exclusively on Sky as well as all single matches on Saturday afternoon. Sky will show highlights of all other matches in a new Bundesliga highlights programme at the weekend.
For the first time in Germany, Sky has secured exclusive broadcasting rights to Formula 1 for the 2021 to 2024 seasons – from the first free practice sessions to the races on Sunday, with all races and most qualifying sessions available in UHD. With ‘Sky Sport F1 HD’, Sky will launch the first ever linear 24/7 motorsport channel on German TV dedicated exclusively to motor racing content. In addition, Sky will broadcast four selected races per season free for everyone and will present a 30-minute highlight show after each race on free-to-air channel Sky Sport News HD.
Already starting this season, Sky will show all Formula 2 and Formula 3 races for the first time as well as the Porsche Super Cup. This will be complemented with a new viewer experience to allow fans to get even closer to the action, leveraging innovations from Sky UK and Sky Italy.
Additionally, Over the next 18 months Sky Deutschland will launch four new Sky channels bringing an additional 2,000 hours of linear and on demand content to its customers:
- Sky Comedy: including popular local and US comedy series
- Sky Crime: focused on international true crime programming
- Sky Nature: extensive nature and animal documentaries from around the world
- Sky Documentaries: documentaries from history, sport and biographies
Meanwhile, Sky has extended its deal with MGM and renewed deals with local independent movie producers, Constantin and Tobis – building on existing agreements with Warner, Sony, Fox and NBC Universal.
Finally, over the next three years Sky will double the number of local German Sky Originals. Produced through Sky Studios, Sky’s Europe wide production powerhouse, the new Sky Originals will build on the successes of Das Boot, Babylon Berlin, Der Pass and Acht Tage. Sky will also show more international Sky Originals, including popular and award-winning shows such as Chernobyl, The Young Pope, Gomorrah, and many others. Sky will add up to eight new high quality Sky Original drama or comedy series to its platform per quarter.
All of this content will be aggregated on Sky Q, along with free-to-air channels, pay channels, box sets, on-demand shows, movies, Sky channels, Sky Originals and streaming apps such as Netflix, DAZN, YouTube, ARD/ZDF, and Disney+ coming in early 2021.