Sky is to be the exclusive broadcast partner of Discovery UK’s streaming service as it rebrands dplay as discovery+.
The real life entertainment service will aggregate Discovery UK’s pay-TV and free-to-air brands including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, ID, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo and Discovery History as well as its free-to-air brands Quest, Really, Quest Red, HGTV, Food Network and DMAX.
Sky Q customers will be gifted a free subscription to discovery+ for the next 12 months. Once the 12 months is over, Sky customers will be able to add discovery+ directly to their Sky bill. It will feature in the apps section of Sky Q alongside Netflix and Disney+.
Outside of the Sky environment, consumers will be able to subscribe to discovery+ directly via web or app purchase for a monthly fee of £4.99 or an initial discounted annual fee of £29.99 (for a limited period), standard price £49.99 in the UK. A 14-day free trial is available to viewers in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
“We’ve just celebrated our best quarter ever for audience share, and buoyed by that success are excited to announce the launch of discovery+, to fuel the rapidly evolving demand for consumers to stream content at a time and on a device of their choosing,” said James Gibbons, EVP GM UK & Nordics. “We’re particularly pleased to share this milestone moment with our long-standing partner Sky, who have been with us every step of the way in our quest to reach fans of real-life entertainment wherever they are in the UK.”
Part of the discovery+, Entertainment Pass, includes live TV and 30 day catch up for Discovery UK’s portfolio of premium brands; and over 30 discovery+ Originals like Prince Andrew, Maxwell & Epstein, Faking It: Jimmy Savile and Salvage Hunters: Design Classics with new launches every month. There are also early releases for hit network titles including World’s Greatest Cars and Ghost Adventures.
discovery+ will be rolled out on additional devices and platforms in 2020 and 2021.
