Comcast-backed British pay-TV giant Sky has announced a 125-title film and TV slate for 2021 – the company aiming to compete with its mega-budgeted SVOD rivals.
Sky renewed its output deal with HBO in late 2019, but the company is readying for the plugged to eventually be pulled as WarnerMedia gets its international licensing plans in order ahead of an HBO Max launch in Latin America and Europe sometime in the next few years.
So, as Sky U.K.’s managing director of content Zai Bennett says, they have to have their own unique content “to future-proof our business.”
The planned 125 films and TV show output represents a 50% boost from 2020 and includes 30 Sky Original films along with 30 original documentaries. The plan is to launch at least two new original films each month rising up to the goal of a new original feature every week in 2022.
Movies on the immediate slate include acquisitions like “Breaking News In Yuba County” and “The Glorias” and others like “Extinct,” “Six Minutes to Midnight” and “SAS: Red Notice”.
The channel’s biggest hit of 2020 was “The Raid” director Gareth Evans’ acclaimed “Gangs of London” event series, and plans are to produce more scripted drama fare with titles on the way including a new adaptation of “The Midwich Cuckoos” (aka. “Village of the Damned”), Michael Winterbottom’s “This Sceptered Isle,” “Wolfe,” and “Extinction”.
All content is expected to eventually land on Sky’s popular SVOD service Now TV. The content of Now TV has a lot of crossover with Peacock in the U.S., but there are no plans to place for Peacock to come to the U.K. anytime soon.
Source: Variety
