Śleboda success for SkyShowtime
January 9, 2025
Śleboda, SkyShowtime’s first locally commissioned original programme in Poland, has shot to the top of the charts in just over two weeks, quickly becoming its best-performing series in the market to-date. Already watched by almost half of all subscribers following its launch on December 12th in Poland, audiences continue to demonstrate strong numbers, with nearly 90 per cent of viewers returning for subsequent episodes.
Following its reception, SkyShowtime has announced that the crime drama will be available across all markets including Northern Europe, Iberia and the rest of Central & Eastern Europe from February 20th. The finale lands in its home country today (January 9th), giving local Polish audiences the first opportunity to watch the entire six-part series.
SkyShowtime Chief Content Officer, Kai Finke, commented: “We’ve been delighted by the extremely strong engagement with Śleboda shown by audiences across Poland since its December launch, with a near 90% of viewers continuing to watch after the first episode, demonstrating not only the popularity of dark and fast-paced crime thrillers, but also an obvious appetite for authentic local productions. This success underlines SkyShowtime’s ongoing commitment to producing compelling authentic local originals for our audiences and we’re excited to launch this series, with its A-list Polish cast and creative team, across all our markets from February.”
The crime drama revolves around Anka (Maria Dębska), a young anthropologist on a journey of self-discovery, who travels to the beautiful landscape of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra mountains only to stumble upon a dead body. She quickly becomes entangled in a murder mystery, crossing paths with Sebastian (Maciej Musiał), a shameless journalist on the hunt for a scoop, and Jędrek (Piotr Pacek), a local police officer with whom she shared a teenage romance.
The series is an adaptation of the first instalment of the series of crime novels by Małgorzata Fugiel-Kuźmińska and Michał Kuźmiński. Śleboda is directed by Michał Gazda and Bartosz Blaschke, with Tomasz Augustynek as Director of Cinematography and Magdalena Szwedkowicz as Producer. The series is written by Karolina Frankowska and Katarzyna Golenia. The series was filmed in the Republic of Poland with support provided through the Act on Financial Support for Audio-visual Production by the Polish Film Institute and funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.