STORY UPDATED. Sky will relocate the playout and uplink of Sky Deutschland from SES Platform Services, a subsidiary of Astra satellite operator SES, in Munich to Sky Italia’s teleport in Milan.
The insourcing which was announced during the presentation of Sky’s half year figures doesn’t come as a surprise to industry insiders. Sky has been increasingly streamlining the operations of Sky UK, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia across content, technology and logistics since their combination into a Europe-wide pay-TV company to benefit from synergies and cost-savings.
In Sky’s first half results 2016 presentation, the move forms part of the integration milestone titled “Efficient Operations” with the overall status “On track. Lots more to come.” Sky UK and Sky Italia are already using their own uplink and playout facilities, making the move to take the German operations in-house a logical step for Sky.
For SES Platform Services, however, it marks the loss of a major customer. The staff at Sky Deutschland is thought to have been happy with their long-time service provider and would have been keen on continuing the relationship.
An SES Platform Services spokesman confirmed to Broadband TV News that Sky Deutschland has decided to move services from Munich to Milan. “We are currently in talks with Sky about scope and timing.”
“We will be able to mitigate the effect for the most part by extending relationships with existing customers as well as new business. A key driver is the enlargement of the product range and geographical scope,” the spokesman said.
“Our platform services operation today is a global business serving more than 150 customers, delivering a wide range of innovative services for the distribution of video content. We are offering a comprehensive range of products and services for every business model: linear video distribution from SD to UHD quality, as well as non-linear VOD and streaming. From content management to consumer apps, we are well positioned for the growing demand from OTT markets worldwide,” the spokesman concluded.
Update, 15.45 CET: Sky Deutschland has confirmed the move. “We have decided to efficiently use the infrastructure within the Sky group and to relocate the playout centre from Munich to Milan,” a Sky Deutschland spokesman told Broadband TV News. “More details regarding the scheduling will be announced in due time.”
