Sky is to create its own content distribution arm to sell its growing slate of originated content overseas.
The broadcaster has acquired Parthenon Media Group, a leading independent international distribution and multi-media rights management company.
The new business will play a central role in the way Sky’s commissioned content is showcased to the international market. It says the new in-house model will help generate additional revenues that can then be ploughed back into the UK’s creative economy.
The current Parthenon team, led by founder and CEO, Carl Hall, will lead the new function within Sky, reporting to Sophie Turner Laing, Sky’s MD of Entertainment, News and Broadcast Operations.
“As we continue to increase investment in UK production, this is a natural step in the evolution of Sky’s content business,” said Turner Laing. “We are producing world class television – innovative, creatively ambitious and, in many cases, on an epic scale. It’s only right that we match this with world class aspirations for how we take this content to as wide an international audience as possible.”
Sky is now one of the largest investors in original British content. This year alone it has invested more than £450 million in British commissioning and production.
This is set to increase to £600 million a year by 2014, with most of the growth set to come in genres such as drama, comedy, entertainment, arts and factual.
