IBC 2012 – AMSTERDAM. Sky’s chief operating officer Mike Darcey has said the launch of the Now TV pay-as-you go service was a response to new opportunities for change.
Darcey told delegates at IBC 2012 that the OTT service would have launched regardless of whether Netflix chose to enter the UK market. He said that Netflix was simply responding to those same opportunities, reminding delegates that as Picnic, the basis of the idea had been mooted as long ago as 2006.
Giving details of Sky Go, the bundled multiscreen platform, Darcey said there were marked differences between shows. The premier of the new season of Mad Men had been watched in its linear form by only 1 in 5 of its eventual audience.
“If you’re a fee to air broadcaster and you saw the overnight ratings you would be alarmed, but as a pay TV broadcaster we’re celebrating,” said Darcey.
Contrast this with the top game of the last Premier League season when the Manchester derby saw 4 million viewers watching at home 1.7 million in pubs and 250,000 over Sky Go.
Darcey said that in the three months to the end of June Sky Go had 2.7 million unique users.
Asked about the prospects for Ultra High Vision, Darcey would not commit, saying that the UK living room was perhaps too small.